A Series of Stories
by Mystic83
Summary: A father’s life is recalled by his daughter through a series of stories told to her by her mother. SSa
1. Bedtime Story

Sydney could hear yelling coming faintly from the upstairs bedroom of her house. Normally, she would just let it go on for a little bit without answering in an effort to get Lily to tire herself out a little. It was usually only a fear of monsters in the closet or dragons under the bed. But this time the cries seemed almost frantic. Which worried her. This might not be monsters.  
  
Jumping up, she made her way up the stairs and to the first room on the right, trying all the way not to slip into spy mode. Just because Lily was crying doesn't mean that some evil spy had broken into her home and tried to steal her child. Granted, it had happened a few times before, but that didn't mean it was what was going on today.  
  
"Hey, baby," Sydney said, once she saw that indeed there was no ominous figure standing by the bed or hovering in the shadows. "What's wrong?"   
  
"I had another bad dream, Mommy," the little seven-year-old girl said from her place in bed. Sydney smiled at her daughter who was the spitting image of herself. The little girl had long, silky brown hair pulled back in a French braid, and her eyes were a piercing blue just like her father's. She was wearing rubber ducky pajamas that her Uncle Will had bought her for her birthday a few weeks ago. Every time Sydney looked at her, she couldn't believe how something so perfect had come out of her war-torn life. It was a miracle.  
  
Breaking her momentary trance, Sydney smiled and walked over to the bed, taking a seat on the edge. "Was it about the mean kids at school again?"   
  
"Yeah," Lily admitted as she lay back down in the bed.   
  
"What do you need me to do, sweetheart?"   
  
"Tell me one of your fun stories."   
  
"About what? Daring car chases? Massive explosions? Double identities?"   
  
"No!" Lily yelled. "I don't want to hear your made-up stories. I want to hear something that's real."   
  
"Who's to say that I made up those stories?"   
  
Lily gave her one of her skeptical looks that said she was tired of hearing people try to lie to her. "Mommy, be serious. Tell me the story about how you met Daddy."   
  
Sydney nodded and leaned back against the wall to make herself a little more comfortable. This was her daughter's favorite story, and it always took quite a bit out of her, drudging up old memories. "Well, you know that your father and I worked at the same bank."   
  
"Yeah. That funny French word."   
  
"Credit Dauphine, Lily. And French is not a funny language. It's very romantic. You'll learn that someday."   
  
"Daddy could speak French, couldn't he?"   
  
"Like no one else." Sydney smiled at her daughter. "Now where was I?"   
  
"You were just starting."   
  
"Oh right. Your father and I knew each other long before the day our story takes place. In fact, we had just been made partners. But let's just say that Mommy wasn't too fond of him at the time."   
  
"Why didn't you like Daddy?"   
  
"Well, he didn't appear to be the nicest man, and he liked to ruffle Mommy's feathers. But I didn't know him that well then. Now I know that he is indeed a very nice man." Sydney paused for a second. "Anyway, your daddy and I were riding in an elevator down to one of the bank's sub-basements…"   
  
**Sydney scowled at Sark as he put his hand in front of the elevator doors to keep them from closing. "Are you trying to make me late, Agent Bristow?"   
  
"Yes," she hissed back. "And it doesn't seem to be working."   
  
"Colleagues usually hold the elevator for one another, no matter how much bad blood is between them. It's common courtesy."**

**"I don't feel the need to be courteous to a man like you."**

**Sark took his place leaning against the back wall of the elevator and gave her a complete look up and down. "Your subtle plan to get me fired really isn't that subtle today. I would expect more of you." He stopped talking until she made eye contact with him. "You know, Sydney, I like you in blue. It makes your smile seem brighter."   
  
"Listen, Sark. Sloane might be making us partner up for missions, but that doesn't mean that I have to start enjoying your company and listen to your slimy come-ons. So, if we could just get through this elevator ride without talking, I would be ever grateful."   
  
To her surprise, he nodded and pulled out his cell phone to make a call. **

"Your daddy really wanted to get some alone time with me," Sydney explained. "You see, I didn't know it at the time, but Julian had a crush on me."   
  
"Crushes are fun," Lily said with a smile.   
  
"You're too young to be saying that," she deadpanned, shaking her head. "Anyway, he caught me going into the elevator and seized the moment to have a conversation with me. There really wasn't a lot of time during our jobs together for us to talk about more than our assignments."

"But Daddy wanted to get to know you."

"Right. Your father wanted to get to know who I was outside of the bank. I didn't really want to hear a word he was saying because of the whole massive hate thing. Since his goal wasn't to make me mad, he didn't say a word when I asked him to be quiet. He just picked up his phone and made a call."   
  
"Did you say please when you told him not to talk?"   
  
"Of course. Believe or not, your Daddy told me later that he was just pretending to make a phone call. He just wanted to have a little time to watch me without me realizing that was his plan."   
  
"Daddy was a smart guy, wasn't he?"   
  
"Yeah, he was, honey. We were just standing in the elevator, me staring at the closed doors and your father on his phone. And then everything in the world seemed to go wrong…"   
  
**The elevator lurched to a stop in between the third and fourth sub-basements. Sydney looked around in confusion but then immediately turned her attention to glaring at Sark. "What the hell did you do?"   
  
"Why do you assume that I had something to do with what is obviously just a mechanical malfunction?"   
  
"Because you always have some hand in everything that goes wrong in my life." Turning away from glaring at him, she started banging on the door and screaming for help.   
  
After a few minutes, he interrupted her screaming. "That's not going to work, and you are just going to tire yourself out. SD-6 has encased this elevator in a special type of metal that traps sound and vibration, so what you're doing is useless. It was a safety precaution. Didn't you read the manual on the facility when you first started working here?"   
  
"Yes," she hissed. "But that was years ago. And right now we're going to suffocate to death because of that nice, little safety precaution. No one knows we're stuck in here."   
  
Sark stood up from where he was leaning and walked over to Sydney. He placed a hand gently on her shoulder. "You should calm down. They'll realize we're in here soon."   
  
"Get your hands off me, you pig," she growled almost on instinct. **

"Your father was there to comfort me, which I'm grateful for looking back on it. At the time I was a little mean to him. I guess I was in a little bit of a panic. It was an extremely scary place to be. A tiny space hanging in between floors and no one around to know that we were in trouble. It still makes me claustrophobic."   
  
"What's claw-so-phone-nick?"   
  
Sydney smiled at her daughter's pronunciation. "Claustrophobic, Lily. It means I'm a little uneasy about small, closed in spaces. And that elevator was exactly that. It also didn't help that we sat in that elevator for a good hour before anyone got in contact with us."   
  
"What did you do for an hour?"   
  
"Nothing. I was in a pretty bad mood so I asked Daddy nicely not to talk to me again…"   
  
**"If you think for one minute I'm going to sit here and banter with you to amuse ourselves, you have another thing coming. So, unless you want to find out just how much pain I can inflict in such a small space, don't say a word." **"One of the security guards realized the error in the elevator mechanics and called us on the emergency phone. He told us that help was on the way and we would be out shortly…"   
  
**Sydney jumped as a voice echoed through the elevator. "Identify yourself," it boomed.   
  
Sark took initiative and walked over to the elevator panel. "Agents Bluebird and Enigma. ID and class 30408-12696 and 52981-10096, respectively."   
  
They sat in silence as the man on the intercom verified the information he had just been given.   
  
"How did you know my SD-6 ID?" Sydney asked absentmindedly. "Did you memorize it?"   
  
"I was taught to know my opponents better than I know myself. That includes you, Sydney. But trust me, I would rather you be my ally than my opponent any day."   
  
She was about to answer when the man came back on the intercom. "Identities verified. We'll try to get the elevator up and running as soon as possible. Do not, I repeat, do not try to find your way out of the elevator yourself. There may be safety mechanisms preventing you from doing so, and we don't want two of the company's most prestigious employees being hurt on a fluke mechanical glitch." The voice clicked off as abruptly as it started.  
  
"So I'm stuck here with you for god knows how long?" Sydney muttered. "Great. Can my day get any better?" She let her body slid down the wall of the elevator until she was sitting on the floor.   
  
"Come on, Sydney," Sark said as he sat down next to her, close enough that their shoulders were touching. "This is the perfect opportunity for me to really understand you."   
  
She glowered at him but didn't tell him to move. **"Your father and I talked for the next hour we were stuck in the elevator after the security guard called us again to say help might take a while. Looking back, I think that was the first really good conversation I'd had in a long time. You remember how Mommy told you that her life was a little more crazy back then."

"I don't believe it," Lily said.

"I know you don't. Anyway, it eventually got too hot in the elevator to even speak. We were in a really small space, and the air system had shut down when the elevator stopped. Have you ever been that hot, sweetie?" Sydney snuggled in closer to her daughter.  
  
"One time I thought I was going to cook myself alive when I was over at Jacob O'Reyers' house. But I just jumped in the backyard pool, and it was all okay."   
  
"Well imagine that but double it. I've never been in such a hot place."   
  
"And you've been to really hot places like Miami and Dallas."   
  
Sydney laughed to herself. If her daughter only knew all the tropical places she had been in her work with SD-6 and the CIA.

"They should put pools in elevators."

"Yeah, they should. I'll suggest that to the person in charge of elevators." She smiled at her daughter's innocent mind. "So, I was roasting alive, and then your father did the strangest thing…"   
  
**"What the hell are you doing?" Sydney demanded as Sark stood up.   
  
Sark paid no attention to her as he slipped off his suit jacket and began to roll up the sleeves of his shirt. "If you haven't noticed, Sydney, it's about a hundred degrees in this elevator. And I am in an Armani suit. Those two things don't go together."   
  
"Afraid you'll get sweat stains?" she joked.   
  
"Exactly. See, no matter what you insist, you do understand me, Bristow."   
  
Sydney stood up and took off her jacket, also, while silently thanking herself for picking the skirt to wear instead of the pants. A skirt was a much better piece of clothing to be wearing when one is stuck with the person they hate most in the world in the hottest and smallest elevator ever made. That was something she had learned already from this experience. **

"Daddy and you took off your clothes?" Lily said surprised.   
  
"Not all of our clothes. Just our jackets, honey." Switching to full-on Mom mode, she added, "It's not appropriate to take off all your clothes even when you're locked up tight in an elevator."   
  
"Just checking. So what happened next?"   
  
Sydney smiled to herself at the memory of what happened next. "Well, then your father said the sweetest thing to me…"   
  
**"You know, I think that if you and I were fighting for the same thing, we'd make a good team. We would probably be unstoppable." Sark sat back down next to Sydney.  
  
She glared at him. "And I bet we'd be lovers, too, right?"   
  
"If that's what you want, all right. It can be arranged."   
  
"You are such a…"   
  
"Impeccable dresser? Mysterious man? No! I got it. Cocky bastard! That was the one you were looking for!" Sark smirked at her. "I don't think I'll ever get tired of being called that. My mother might object if she were still alive, but I enjoy it."  
  
Sydney couldn't help it. She let out a huge laugh. Sark had never been this relaxed around her before. He always seemed so stuffy and… well… British. But it must have been something in the air. The heat, maybe. He seemed almost… normal.   
  
"I'm beginning to think you don't hate me as much as you want everyone to think. We've been in this elevator for a few hours now, and you haven't tried to kill me. Not once." Sark turned his head to the left and smiled at her. "Maybe you even like me."   
  
She turned her head to the right to face him. "Don't push me. We're still stuck in here. There's plenty of time for me to get mad and try to kill you. And you haven't factored in the possibility that I've been spending my time wisely creating a plan to kill you so that it looks like an accident." **"Your father was just full of surprises that day. He told me that he had been watching me, and that he thought I was a very smart, beautiful woman."   
  
"Was Daddy romantic, Mom?"   
  
"Very much so. But I wouldn't find that out until much later."   
  
"But he called you beautiful. All guys who call you beautiful are trying to be romantic."   
  
Sydney smiled at her naïve, little daughter. "Your father told me some things about myself that I thought no one else would know…"   
  
**"So, Sydney," Sark said with a smirk, "how's that whole double agent thing working out for you?"   
  
"What are you talking about?" she replied, trying her best to play dumb.   
  
"Don't pretend that you don't know. You've been working for the CIA for over a year now. It's as plain as day to anyone who's willing to look. You're not that stealthy when you pull your double switches or give the wrong intel. A person as well-trained as me could spot it within seconds."   
  
Sydney just stared at him. "I wouldn't call you well-trained, just paranoid. And I'm not admitting or denying anything."   
  
"Smart. But that kind of puts an end to our conversation so I think you might have to. I mean, what else do you have to do right now besides tell me all your deep, dark secrets? I promise I'm very good at keeping secrets." Sark smiled at her in his normal, devilish way. Then he moved over so that he was sitting in front of her. "Why don't you tell me about your handler? My intel says that you're extremely fond of this Michael Vaughn."   
  
"Leave Vaughn out of this," she growled before she realized what she had just admitted to.   
  
"See? I knew you couldn't keep a secret. And obviously, you do care about the man to make such an impulsive statement."   
  
"Michael Vaughn means a lot to me, Sark," she said very slowly and intently. "If you do a thing to him at any point in our time working together, you'll learn the true meaning of pain. And that is a promise."   
  
"I think that's the fourth threat you've made to my life in the past ten minutes. We're making progress." Sark smirked. "I didn't mean to upset you, Sydney. Honestly. I just want to know more about you. You intrigue me." **"I noticed that he was acting a little strange. Usually, your father and I just had arguments. We never really talked nicely with one another. In the hectic life of banking, there's not really any time to get to know your co-workers or to try to make friends. But he was being nice to me. So I called him on it…"   
  
**"Why the hell are you being so civil towards me?" she demanded.   
  
"Because, as hard as it is to believe, I like you, Sydney. I find you to be intelligent and beautiful in a naturally sexy way. Any warm-blooded man would realize that within two seconds of meeting you. And I find I enjoy being in your company. Even when you're threatening to kill me."  
  
She didn't know what to say as a response. She had not seen this one coming. The only thing she could manage to come up with was "SD-6 doesn't condone relationships between partners in its organization." And she knew that it was going to be taken completely wrong and out of context.   
  
Sark laughed. "So, you are interested in me?"   
  
"No. I was just saying."   
  
"Uh huh." He smirked at her. **"Then what happened, Mommy?"   
  
"Then the elevator started moving again, and the conversation was dropped…" she said quickly.   
  
**"There's no security cameras in this elevator," he said after a minute of tense silence.   
  
"What is that supposed to mean?"   
  
"You said that SD-6 doesn't condone relations between its agents. While we're in this elevator, they won't know a thing. It's like a safe zone. No spies besides you and me."   
  
"I am not going to have sex with you in an elevator!" she yelled, completely appalled.   
  
"I never said anything about sex, Sydney. That was your dirty mind making inferences."   
  
"As if that wasn't your implied meaning." She stood up and started pacing back and forth. "I don't know what to make of you half the time. First, you're a complete bastard who could care less about anything. Which is how you're supposed to act, by the way. That's who you are."   
  
"Oh? Do you know for a fact that's who I am?"   
  
She ignored him. "And then the very next second, you're being romantic and funny and… well… normal. You're like the kind of guy I would find attractive outside of this atmosphere. But then you morph right back to the jerk who asks girls to sleep with him in elevators." Frustrated, she turned and stared at her reflection on the shiny elevator wall.   
  
Sydney was too busy ranting to notice that Sark had stood up and was slowly walking over to the corner where she was pacing. "I did not ask you to sleep with me."   
  
"Whatever. All I'm saying is I have never, ever met a man who frustrates me more than you." She turned around to start pacing again and gasped. The man in question was standing inches away from her and slowly closing that distance.**

**He stared her straight in the eyes so intently she felt herself begin to blush. Before she could move away from him, he had his arms up against the elevator walls, pinning her. He saw her eyes widen in horror as he leaned his head close to hers and whispered in her ear.**

**"I know that I shouldn't be doing this, Sydney. That all it's going to cause me is further pain and embarrassment. A girl like you would never let herself end up with a guy like me. To be honest, I'm pretty sure that a guy like me shouldn't be with a girl like you." He pulled back and looked her in the eyes again. "But I'm dying to find out what would happen if we forgot about that and just tried."**

**"What are you doing?" she whispered, confused and yet perfectly aware of what was happening.  
  
"Kissing you," he whispered back before gently touching his lips to hers. **

**  
Sydney knew that she should probably have kneed him in the groin. That was the sensible and logical thing to do in this situation. Which is why she was so surprised when she felt her hands go up around his back and pull him closer to her. She cursed herself silently for given in to him but was delighted to hear him groan as her lips ground into his.**

**Later she would blame it on the words he had said to her, but for that moment, she was willing to admit that he might be right.  
  
Sark could feel one of Sydney's hands work its way up to his chest and slowly begin to unbutton his shirt. He had never thought that they would be doing this when he decided to hop in the same elevator as her and annoy her a little. He ran his hands up along the sides of her arm and was thrilled to feel her shiver under his touch. This is how he had always imagined kissing Sydney Bristow would be. Absolutely perfect.   
  
Which is the only reason he managed to pull himself away from here.   
  
"What?" she asked, trying to pull him back into the kiss.   
  
"We need to stop, Sydney." He could see the anger flare up in her eyes, and he put one finger to her lips to quiet her before she started yelling. "Listen to me. You know that I want this, whatever this is. That's obvious. However, I don't want this to turn out to be just a fun three-hour round of sex in a broken elevator."   
  
"Three hours?" she said, raising an eyebrow.   
  
He shrugged. "You're going to have to wait to find out about that one. What I'm trying to say, Sydney, is I'm interested in you. More so than any other woman I've ever met. I don't want this to be a little fling between us in an elevator."   
  
"Maybe all I want is a little fling in an elevator," she said defiantly.  
  
"Sydney, we both know that's not true."**

**"Oh, stop being so full of yourself!"**

**He looked at her intently. "It's time you stopped being afraid of your emotions and just started saying what you feel. It's time that you admit that there's something between us." **

"We were in the middle of a very important conversation. Your father was trying to get me to admit to something really important when there was a big shift as the elevator started running again. I almost fell down from the jolt. You know what a big klutz I am, honey."   
  
"Yeah, you're always bruised from banging into desks and doorways at your job."   
  
"That's right. This time, though, I didn't get hurt because your daddy caught me before I hit the floor…"   
  
**Sydney was about to admit that Sark might have a point, there was something between them that she could identify quite yet, when the elevator shifted. She saw Sark get thrown back against the wall two seconds before she felt herself being flung in the same direction right on top of him. As the elevator shifted into its normal up and down motion, he whispered in her ear, "In my arms again, Bristow. It must be fate."  
  
Sydney didn't say a word to him as she backed out of his arms to her previous position in front of the elevator doors, waiting for them to open. As they opened and she stepped out, she took one last look at the man who had suddenly changed in her eyes. **"He said to me that it must have been fate that I keep ending up in his arms." She saw Lily jumping up and down on the bed in anticipation of the last part of the story. "And do you remember what I said to him?"   
  
"You said 'Maybe it is' and then you kissed Daddy."   
  
"That's right, sweetheart. That was the first time I realized that I might actually be falling in love with your father." Sydney patted her daughter on the head and stood up. "Now, it's time for you to go back to sleep. Sweet dreams, pumpkin!"   
  
"Good night, Mommy. I love you."   
  
"I love you, too."   
  
Sydney watched her daughter burrow down into the covers. When she was content that Lily was no longer scared and she could hear the sound of her steady breathing, she flipped off the overhead light and closed the door softly.   
  
The second she was out of the room, she pushed herself back against the wall of the hallway and put her face in her hands, finally allowing herself to cry. The words she had said to Sark that day echoed through her mind.   
  
**"Maybe it is."**


	2. Afterschool Story

Lily and her mother were walking home from school the next afternoon, hand in hand, as was their normal routine. Sydney had always felt uneasy letting her daughter leave school without someone watching over her. It had been years since someone had attempted a kidnapping of a loved one. The paranoia was a bad habit she couldn't seem to break. After recounting the events that occurred throughout the school day, Lily got abnormally quiet.

"What's the matter, honey?" Sydney asked, looking concerned. Her daughter didn't have the easiest time at school and she knew it. "Did you have another run-in with Fiona at school today?"

Lily shook her head. It hadn't been the school bully this time. "I was sitting in class today thinking about Daddy."

She was only thrown off a second by her daughter's words. "You miss him, don't you?"

"Yeah."

She put her hands around her daughter's shoulder to give her a walking hug. "I miss him, too, Lily. We're going to see him today, though, just like I promised. So you'll get to let him know just how much you miss him. It will help a lot, I think."

Lily brightened up a little and smiled at her mother. "Will you tell me a story while we're walking to see Daddy?"

Sydney eyed her daughter suspiciously. "I bet you've been waiting all day to ask me that one, scheming and plotting how to guilt trip me into it. Don't you get tired of hearing the same stories over and over again?"

"No," her daughter answered resolutely. "But I came up with a story in school today that I don't think you ever told me. I want to hear about your first date with Daddy."

Sydney smiled and ushered her daughter over to a bench in the park they were walking through. "You're right. I don't think I ever told you about how your father managed to first get me to go on a date with him. He tricked me, you know..."

Sark walked down the Champs-Elysee with Sydney, not completely oblivious that everyone was staring at the pair of them. "I think we're drawing attention to ourselves," he whispered in his ear. He slipped his hand into hers.

"I think if you want to still be a man tomorrow, you're going to take your hand out of mine," she hissed back.

"No," he said with a defiant smile, gripping her hand as tight as he could without hurting her. "I don't think so, Sydney."

She rolled her eyes. "The object of the mission is to draw some attention to us. Sloane is running that covert operation in one of the other SD cells territories here in Paris. He wants them to see that his two best agents are otherwise busy so they won't figure out what he's up to. So that means you and I need to draw as much attention to us as possible. It doesn't mean we have to convince people that we're romantically involved."

Her heart dropped out as she looked over at him and saw a wicked grin begin to form on his face.

"Daddy and I had the most extraordinary first date. It was like we didn't have a care who saw us or if what we were doing was strange. He took me to one of the most romantic places I could imagine."

"Los Angeles?" Lily said with wide eyes. That was the most magical place she could think of.

Sydney did her best not to laugh. "That's right, darling. He took me into the city, but at first it wasn't a date. He and I were there on business."After a moment, she added, "Bank business," just to make sure they were clear.

"When did it turn into a date?"

"Well, when he grabbed my hand as we were walking down the street and did the most spontaneous thing..."

****

Sark whirled Sydney in close to his body and started swaying gently to the music provided by a street performer. It was a move right out of a cheesy romantic comedy, but at first she didn't really care. No one had ever done anything like this before for her. It was always romantic moves like this that appeared in her dreams, when she knew no one would criticize her or poke fun at her. She had always wanted someone like this but hadn't even had the nerve to talk about her dream man to Francie.

It was slightly disconcerting that Sark was acting just as she had pictured her dream man. She started to wonder if telepathy and brain monitoring had given him an edge. As their feet moved in small circles, she tried to forget that both of those things were highly possible and try to focus on keeping her opinion of Sark far from that of her dream man.

That moment of concentration was when she realized people were really staring now. She struggled to get away, but the more she tried, the more tightly he held her to him.

"This is all part of the job, Sydney. People are really noticing us now."

"I don't see how SD-10 is going to be convinced that you and I would normally dance in the street together on our night off. We're supposed to be believable."

"Then, we're just going to have to make sure to do this on every mission we go on." Sark dipped her gracefully, and she let out a small laugh.

As they danced in small circles in the middle of the sidewalk, Sydney allowed herself to step out of her mission mode and enjoy what she was doing. With the wind blowing through her hair and the sun setting in the distance, she was starting to realize that if the situation was different, this would be a very romantic thing for Sark to do.

"Your father was a great dancer. I could hear girls whispering about how lucky I was to find such a romantic man. I shrugged it off at the time, but now I realize just how great he was."

"I love Daddy."

"I love him, too." Sydney went quiet for a moment. Hearing Lily shift slightly beside her made her snap back to attention. "But let's get back to the story. So, we were dancing in the street..."

****

"Now isn't this fun, Agent Bristow?"

"No," she said while he twirled her.

"You know what would make it even more believable?" When she didn't answer, he continued. "If you were to show your true feelings and kiss me."

"No," she said a little more firmly than before.

"I just thought it would be fun. I mean, it's plain to see that you're having fun. Why can't I have fun, too?"

"Because you only seem to have fun when there's a gun in your hand and someone's dying," she said, then quickly added, "And I'm not having fun."

"Liar. Your eyes are sparkling."

She glared at him, wrenched herself out of his grasp, and started walking down the street again. He ran to catch up with her. "What should we do now?" he asked.

"Something that doesn't involve me having to talk to you."

"That's what we were doing back there. You didn't like it." He smirked at her. "And you wouldn't kiss me so that nonverbal activity is out of the running."

"I am asking Sloane for a reassignment when we get back to L.A.," she said without thinking. His face dropped at her words, surprising her. He had actually been thrown off.

"I said some mean things to your father." Sydney found that she couldn't look her daughter in the eye at this part of the story. "Things that I regret now. But you have to remember I didn't know then what a great catch Julian was."

"You used to say a lot of mean things to Dad. Why?" Lily asked honestly.

"I don't know. I never realized it, but he hardly ever said anything mean to me. What he said sometimes hurt me because it was the truth. Your father was always good at telling the truth. The main problem was the truth wasn't usually something I wanted to hear. Or it wasn't something I could handle hearing at the time. Things were always a little delicate in my life." Sydney finally looked at Lily. "But Daddy was never out right mean like I was. I never apologized to him for that."

"I think he knows," Lily said while placing her hand on top of her mother's. "But you can tell him today if it will make you feel better."

"Thank you, Lily."

Sydney sat in silence for a moment, thinking about what Sark's face had looked like when she said she was going to ask for a reassignment. "I don't think I've ever hurt him as much as I did that day..."

****

She had never before seen Sark falter in the cool exterior he presented to everyone. But it was painfully clear that the idea of her being reassigned was not what he wanted or imagined would ever happen. "Sark?' she said hesitantly after he hadn't said anything for a few moments.

He looked at her once more and started walking without saying a word. She ran to catch up with him. "I thought we had made progress, Bristow," he said softy and rather calmly after they had walked side by side for a few moments.

****

"What do you mean?"

He stopped to look at her. "In the elevator last week. I thought I had convinced you that you didn't need to be so emotionally reserved with me." She looked at him in confusion. "You don't have to pretend like you're a faithful SD-6 servant or that you don't enjoy my company. There's no need for a facade with me. I know who you are, Sydney. I mean, who you really are. I'm sure there's not many other people you know who could say that. So, for god's sake, just give me a little trust. It's so easy to stop pretending. You don't have to lie about anything when you're with me. Hell, you don't even have to pretend that you're not a natural blonde." He fingered a piece of her hair.

She smiled. "I didn't think of it in that way."

"I figured," he said, letting go of the piece and continuing to walk. "For being such an intelligent woman, you really don't see what's in front of your face sometimes."

She touched her wig lightly, feeling where the strand was warm from his touch. "And what's in front of my face that I don't see?"

Sark looked at her incredulously. "I told you that I wanted you, Sydney. It might not be the smartest decision I've ever made, but I decided that I was tired of playing cat and mouse with you."

"Do you remember telling me about Brian Conner and Tiffany Brown?" Sydney asked her daughter, rather abruptly interrupting the story's natural progression.

"Yes. They fought all the time at the beginning of the school year. And now they're going out."

Sydney smiled at the thought of second graders dating. "Your father and I were like that. We fought all the time as a way to keep from admitting that we loved each other. If we were as young as you are right now, I'm sure he would have pushed me in the mud at recess like Stevie Antoline did to you last month." She smiled at the memory of her daughter walking into the house covered from head to toe in dirt and mud. "And when Daddy tricked me into going on our first date, he called me on that fact."

"How did he trick you anyway, Mommy?" Lily asked.

Sydney reached down and grabbed her daughter's book bag. Without a word, she then stood up and reached her hand out to Lily. After a moment, she said, "I'm going to get to that. Now let's start walking while I tell the story."

"Daddy's waiting, right?"

"Yes. Daddy's waiting..."

****

"I'm tired of pretending with you," Sark finished, looking at Sydney expectantly.

"I don't know what to say," she whispered honestly.

Sark sighed, realizing that their argument/discussion wasn't going to go anywhere he wanted it to at the moment. He glanced at their surroundings. "There's a restaurant across the street. Let's drop the subject for now and go get dinner."  
  
"Dinner was not in the mission schedule."

"You owe me dinner after crushing my hopes so brutally before," he said, his trademark smirk returning.

She felt a weight being lifted off of her as he seemed to return back to his normal demeanor of cold and brutal honesty mixed with sarcasm. When she nodded in agreement, he put his hand softly on the small of her back and led her across the street. It was an intimate gesture that did not go unnoticed by her.

The first thing that Sydney noticed was this restaurant was way too fancy for them to just walk into and expect a table. She was about to turn to Sark and tell him just that when the maitre d' walked up to them.

"Mr. Sark, it is so good to see you again. And with such a pretty lady."

Sydney looked over at Sark and narrowed his eyes. Sark just shrugged.

"I was surprised when you called us this morning to say you were in town."

"It was last minute."

"Your father arranged it so that we had a really romantic dinner waiting for us at the restaurant. And it was then that he sprung the whole notion of this being a date on me..."

****

After they had sat down, Sydney took the time to look around and really take in her surroundings. Most of the other people dining were young couples who couldn't care less about their rather loud entrance thanks to the maitre d's obnoxious delight in seeing Sark once more. Everyone else was too wrapped up in each other to notice. She turned back to Sark. "This is a rather romantic place, isn't it?"

"Isn't that the idea when you're on a first date?"

Her eyes widened in shock. "A what?"

"A first date. I figured the only way to get you to go on was to trick you into it." He leaned back in his chair, clearly pleased with himself. "Carpe diem, you know?"

They paused at a red light, waiting for the walk sign to flash on. "Daddy told you that he meant to trick you? Wasn't that kind of dangerous?"

"How do you mean?"

"Well, I know if I were you, I wouldn't have been too happy at being tricked."

"Well, I wasn't," Sydney admitted. "You can say I was rather furious..."

****

Sydney glared at Sark. "This is not a date, Sark. I would never agree to go on a date with you. The whole idea of dating you repulses me."

"Oh. So taking advantage of me in an elevator is fine, but actually going out with me in public is not?"

"Do not bring up what happened in the elevator. That was a single, isolated incident that I do not plan on repeating."

"Single, isolated incident?" He took a sip of wine. "Did anyone ever tell you that you don't talk like a normal person, Sydney?"

"Don't try to take the focus off of the fact that you're trying to sucker me into going on a date with you."

The woman dining alone at the table next to them leaned over to talk to Sydney. "I think you've already been suckered."

Sark gave the woman a devilish smile. "Thanks."

Sydney stared back and forth from the two in shock. It wouldn't have surprised her if Sark had hired this woman at an earlier time to help convince her not to cause him physical harm for what he was trying to do.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to eavesdrop, but you two were speaking rather loudly," the woman said. "And if you don't want this attractive young man, I'll have you know that there are probably plenty of women in this restaurant who would be willing to give up their dates to have one with him, myself included."

Sydney narrowed her eyes. "That won't be necessary." She turned away from the woman and glared at Sark. "Are we going to eat or what, Sark?"

"Was that you being possessive?" he asked.

"Just order," she growled as the waiter came towards the table.

Sydney smiled at her daughter who was playing with a dog that a person had been walking down the street. "Thinking back, I should have known that your father would convince me to go through with the date. He was a smooth talker through and through. Just like you."

Lily stood up and looked shocked. "What's a smooth talker and why am I one?"

"A smooth talker is someone who can use words to get people to do whatever they want. And I recall many a trip to get ice cream at times that were well past your bedtime, young lady."

"You can't say no to ice cream."

"No, you can't." She patted her daughter lightly on the head. "At that point, I thought it was time that your father realized how it felt to be put on the spot..."

****

Sydney's eyes fell on the maitre d' again. "So how many women have you brought to this little restaurant of love, Sark?"

"What do you mean?" he asked, getting slightly nervous.

"Well, I was just thinking that it seems as if you are a regular here. This isn't the type of restaurant that you stop by on your way out of town to pick up a sandwich. It's too romantic. So I was just wondering how many different women you brought here since you first started coming."

Sark loosened his tie a little. "Not many."

"A number, please," she insisted.

He held out his hand and started counting on his fingers while mumbling names softly to himself. "Four," he said decisively after a moment.

"And I'm sure those four women would be happy that they have been demoted to just a finger representation." She scowled and leaned back in her chair. "This is the Sark I've come to know. The one that counts his conquests on his fingers."

"I never said that I came here on dates."

"Then who were the four women?"

He purposely held up one finger at her dramatically. "One, Katarina Svetlikana. My old partner when I was working with your mother. She and I were the ones that discovered this place." He held up another finger. "Two, Ginny Francisco. She was an Italian businesswoman I was finessing so that I could steal business plans for your mother." Another finger. "Three, Viviane Bordeaux, an old friend of my mother's who had just moved from the south of France into Paris." He extended his pinky finger. "Four, your mother."

Sydney waited for him to explain that one, but he didn't. "So you're saying that I'm the first woman you've brought here for a romantic dinner without wanting something from them as a mission or as a friend?"

He nodded, leaving her speechless.

"What happened then?" Lily asked.

"Then, the subject was dropped, and we ate our meals in peace."

She nodded. "So what did you and Daddy do after dinner?"

"Your father took me to..." She paused realizing she was about to say the Tuileries Gardens right outside the Louvre, but that really wouldn't fit in well with the story she was telling Lily. "...MacArthur Park. It was lovely at nighttime."

"Can we go there?" Lily asked.

"We could go this weekend if you wanted."

"Great. So what did you guys do at the park?"

A flash of memory went through Sydney's face. She realized that she couldn't really tell her daughter what had happened. "We walked for a little bit..."

****

"Why did you bring me here?" Sydney said quietly. She had been staring at Paris illuminated by the moonlight for the past few minutes silently while leaning against a small fence.

"Because, unlike the restaurant, our incessant bickering will not bother anyone out here."

The corner of her mouth raised in a smile slightly. "We do bicker a lot, don't we?"

"Like an old married couple." Sark sat down on the park bench that was behind them. "Come. Sit down with me."

Sighing, she complied and took a seat next to him. She didn't say a word as he took her hand into his. They sat in silence for about ten minutes, neither one knowing what exactly to say to another.

Finally, Sydney turned to him. She watched him staring out across the gardens. He looked uncharacteristically peaceful and... and... happy. She had never realized that she had thought he looked discontent before.

Without really thinking, she turned his head gently to face her and gave him a light kiss. She could see the shock and surprise register in his eyes before she pulled back. "Thank you."

"For what?"

"For this night. I've almost forgotten about how messy my life is." She paused and took a deep breath. "You're right."

"Well, it took you long enough to admit it." He paused, unconsciously rubbing where her lips had touched his. "What am I right about?"

"You are someone I can actually open up to and be myself around, strangely enough." She took another deep breath, wondering to herself why she found it so easy to tell the truth and speak her heart to him. "You were also right on another point. There is something between us. And I didn't want to admit it." She turned away, his intense stare making her a little uncomfortable. "That doesn't mean I love you, though."

"No, you love Michael Vaughn."

Sydney could tell that he wasn't trying to mock here or twist her words in any way. It was just another one of his simple statements of fact. "I might."

"I've always supported the principle that you can love more than one person at one time."

"That's debatable."

He tried another approach as he sensed her closing herself off from him again. "Why wouldn't you admit it?" he asked gently. "It's not like I would have teased you."

"My life hasn't exactly been easy, you know. I really don't think I'm capable of trusting anyone anymore."

"You can trust Michael Vaughn," Sark pointed out, kind of bitterly. He didn't mean to keep bring the conversation around to the topic of her handler, but it didn't seem like he and Sydney could have an honest talk about her love life without including Michael Vaughn. He hated that.

"He hasn't done anything to prove he would betray me. At least not yet."

"That's rather cynical."

"It's the truth," she said softly. She could feel the tears forming in her eyes, and she cursed herself for showing weakness. "In my life, all I'm used to is disappointment and betrayal."

Sark wiped a tear off of her cheek. "I promise that you don't have to worry about that with me. I don't want to fit into the mold you've formed for the men in your life."

"You don't," she whispered.

"I'll take that as a compliment."

"It was meant as one."

They sat in a comfortable silence as Sydney tried to calm her tears.

"Why are you acting so nice?" she said as he wiped the last escaped tear away. "I don't understand you."

"I don't understand myself, either. I've never been as crazy for a woman as I am for you, Sydney. You make my life very difficult, you know. I wasn't supposed to fall in love when I started working for SD-6."

Sydney stared at him in shock. He had not just said what she thought he had. It wasn't possible.

"Your father told me that he loved me that night."

"On the first date?" Lily asked. "Isn't that a little early?"

"A little bit. But our courtship wasn't a normal one. Our jobs didn't really let us have that much time to date."

"Did your heart jump when he said he loved you?"

"No, it didn't jump. It stopped dead in its tracks..."

****

"What did you just say?" she whispered. She had just told him that she didn't love him, and yet somehow he found the courage, or stupidity, depending on one's opinion of the situation, to say that he loved her.

"I love you, Sydney. I can't help it. And I can't change it." He stood up and offered her a hand. "Now let's get going. We need to be noticed by at least half a dozen more people before the night is up."

She took his hand without a word. They had almost reached the edge of the Tuileries when the weight of his words finally sunk in. He loved her.

Sydney paused for a second in her storytelling, recalling her thoughts at the time of the tale.

Throughout her whole life, those were the hardest words to get people to say when it came to her. Her father barely ever said them. Her mother was "dead" for most of her life. She hadn't even known she had a sister until it was too late. It had been extremely hard for her to accept.

"Mommy?" Lily said hesitantly. "Are you okay? You don't have to tell me the story if it makes you sad."

"No, honey. It was a very happy time for me, both then and now..."

Love was not a thing tossed around lighting in her opinion.

"What?" Sark asked, realizing she had been staring at him for the past minute.

Without a word, she lunged at him and pushed him against a tree, showering kisses onto his face. He stood in shock, feeling the hardness of the tree trunk behind him and the softness of her hands as she slowly reached them up beneath his shirt and raked her nails across his chest. "You need to stop doing that whole attacking thing," he said when she allowed him a second to breathe.

"You like it," she whispered in his ear throatily, causing him to shiver.

The second she let her focus down, he turned the scales on her, pinning her up against the tree. Almost unconsciously, she let herself be picked up and wrapped her legs around his waist. He could feel her hands on his belt buckle, loosening it.

"I don't know if I can say no this time," Sark warned her. When she didn't say anything but continued to unzip his pants, he figured that was a green light. This was the moment for which he had been waiting for what seemed like as long as he could remember.

"Mommy?" Lily asked, hesitantly again.

"Hmm?" Sydney said, realizing she hadn't been speaking out loud for awhile.

"You drifted off on me again. Didn't you get enough sleep last night?"

"I think I did." Sydney smiled at her daughter and grabbed Lily's hand again, turning them down a gravel path. "Where did I leave off?"

"You told me that you let Daddy kiss you up against a tree."

"Okay. Well, this is something you're going to have to trust me about for at least another five years or so. But first kisses can tell you a lot about the future of a relationship."

"Didn't you already kiss him? In the elevator?"

"That didn't count since we weren't on an official date."

"Okay," Lily said, trying to commit everything her mother was saying to memory for future use. "So, how was your first kiss with Daddy?"

"Magical. Unreal. Perfect."

"And that's why he became my daddy?"

"That's why he became your daddy. I knew once I had kissed him that night, there was no one else who could compare..."

****

Sydney tried to smooth her clothes back to an acceptable level.

"Well, that was interesting," Sark said, rebuckling his pants. "I never expected that one."

"It's safe to say that if anyone saw us, and I'm thinking not because we haven't been arrested, but if someone did, they would definitely know that you and I weren't on any mission tonight."

"Unless it was a mission of love," Sark joked.

Sydney smacked him hard and started walking away.

"I'm sorry," Sark said as he ran to catch up with her.

"For a second there, I was actually enjoying being in your presence."

"It seemed longer than a second to me. Granted, I was a little taken aback so I wasn't up to my normal level of performance." This time, he managed to dodge her blow. After it seemed she had settled down and wouldn't be throwing any more fists at him, he dared to ask, "Where does this leave us?"

"Your father wanted to know how I felt about him."

"Did you tell him you loved him?" Lily asked innocently.

"Of course not. We had only been on one date..."

****

"I don't know, but I think I lied to you before," Sydney answered.

"About what?" he asked.

"I think when you're not being a jerk, I might be falling in love with you. That's not often," she added in warning.

"But it's still something," he said with a smile. "And it's enough for now."

They walked along the Paris road in silence, for once just happy to be in the other's company.

"We're here," Sydney said, walking across the grass. She placed her hand onto the cool granite that the stone was made of and absentmindedly traced the letters spelling out Julian Sark. "Say hello to your father."

Lily knelt in front of the grave. "Hi, Daddy."


	3. Park Story

Sydney sat down on the swings at MacArthur Park and watched her daughter play in the sandbox a few yards away. Visiting Sark's grave earlier that week had been hard on the both of them. Sydney and Lily had formed such a happy little bubble of life that it wasn't easy admitting that there was something noticeably missing all the time.

Lily denied that she missed her father that much, but Sydney thought that was mostly for her benefit. Her daughter might be young, but she was smart. She knew how much her parents had loved each other, how they practically lived to be with each other. Sydney didn't have to tell Lily stories for that to be apparent.

The wind rippled through her hair as she pumped her legs, sending her swing back and forth. She surrendered herself to the simple pleasure. Swings were always her favorite part of the playground when she was little. For some reason, she had always enjoyed the feeling of almost leaving the earth that swings provided.

She snapped out of her swinging rhythm when she heard a tiny voice say, as she breezed past, "I'm sorry, Mommy." Screeching to a halt, she saw her daughter had left the sandbox and was standing next to the poles that held the swings up.

"What are you sorry for, baby?" Sydney asked.Lily walked in front her mother's now motionless swing and took a seat on the neighboring one. "I shouldn't have asked to come here."

"Why not? I thought you liked parks." When Lily nodded, it dawned on Sydney. "Does this have something to do with Daddy?"

"This is where you came on your first date. I bet being here just makes you miss him more."

Sydney smiled at her daughter's concern. True, she had come to MacArthur Park with Sark before, but it was just for a casual stroll. She couldn't tell her daughter that it was really Paris that made her nostalgic for her father. There were so many things that happened between them in that city. It was the first time they had met face to face. It was the place of their first mission as partners for SD-6. And like she hadn't told Lily, it was the place of their first official date. "It's all right, Lily. I kind of miss him all the same everywhere I go."

Lily nodded and started swinging lightly.

"Is there something on your mind?" Sydney asked after a moment.

"Bobby's father died when he was little, too. His mother found him another Daddy. I was just wondering why you didn't do that for me."

Sydney took a deep breath. "It's not because I didn't want to give you another, Daddy. I tried. I really did. It's just that after a while I realized that I couldn't find a man who I could love as much as I loved your father. And I didn't want to force you to love a man that I couldn't. Does that make sense?"

"Kinda. It's like Grandma says. You and Daddy had a special love."

Sydney smiled at the thought of her mother. Irina had really helped out for the first few years after they lost Sark. She had come rather close to self-destructing and probably would have come a lot closer if Lily and her parents weren't there for her. "Our whole relationship was one in a million."

"Grandma was saying the other day that Daddy was the only boyfriend you ever had that made Grandpa smile."

Sydney thought about the way her father had warmed up to Sark when he found out that they were getting married and she was pregnant with Lily. True, he had practically killed Sark when he first found out about their relationship, but he got used to the idea rather fast. "Yeah, your father was a charmer."

"Tell me about the wedding," Lily said, abruptly.

"You are getting so demanding with these stories, sweetheart."

"Please?" She put on her sweetest face.

"All right. Your father and I didn't want too large a wedding. There were a few complications with my other job that kept us from having a large church wedding.."

"The job where you used your banking skills to help the government?" Lily said the last word rather slowly, sounding it out.

"Right. That one. There were a few people at that job that didn't really like Daddy. They were my friends first and foremost, and they wanted to make sure that he was good enough for me, I guess."

"And he was."

"Absolutely. So, in hopes of keeping it simple, your father and I got married on the beach..."

****

Sydney looked at herself in the mirror and took a deep breath, feeling the light breeze off the ocean blow her veil. She couldn't believe this day that she had dreamed of since she was seven was finally here. Laughing, she thought back to all the different men she had envisioned as her groom.

There was Nick Hinkle, her first grade crush. They had almost gotten married on the playground at recess, but it seemed, like most men, he got cold feet. Either that or he decided that kickball was more fun than marriage.

After that she got serious. There were only two other men she allowed herself to think of in terms of forever. The first was Noah Hicks, her first partner at SD-6. She had loved him with all her heart. That didn't end so well, though. He had hurt her so many times, the last time ending in his death.

Danny Hecht should have probably been her husband if she had had her way. Destiny was a crazy thing, though. The same force that brought the current love of her life in had thrown Danny out. In ways, she would always be conflicted as to whether she should be grateful or resentful of SD-6.

"How are you doing?" Nadia asked as she let herself into the small tent they had set up earlier as a makeshift dressing room. She looked slightly disheveled.

"Aunt Nadia was there?"

Sydney nodded, the sadness radiating in her eyes. "That was before your aunt had to go away on her long vacation to India."

Lily smiled and stood up. "I have to pee," she said simply.

Sydney was left alone to think of her sister and what had gone wrong in their relationship. When she had first rescued Nadia from that women's prison, she had high hopes that her sister would come to fight side by side for her with the US government. She knew now that was just a foolish daydream that could never become real. When Nadia disappeared with her father on the same day that Sydney learned her father had betrayed her, she unconsciously knew that a happy relationship between the two of them wasn't an option any longer.

Nadia returned six months later without uttering a word to anyone where she had been. It had taken Sydney months to get her to admit that she had been with Sloane.

At the time of her wedding, Sydney was just glad to have her sister back. She still had the foolish hope of forming a close relationship with her at that point. It would take work and trust, but she really though it could happen.

Now she knew that was impossible. Just like Rambaldi had predicted, her sister went down the wrong path and ended up facing off with Sydney in a fight to the death.

Sydney won.

There wasn't a day that went by where she didn't wonder if it might have been better if she had lost.

Nadia's death was easier to handle for Sydney. She had gotten familiar with the whole grieving process when Sark had died. The one thing she regretted was not being able to tell her daughter the whole truth about her aunt. Someday, she would explain that Nadia was not studying religion in India like Lily had always been told. Sydney didn't know why she hadn't told her daughter. If Lily could handle the fact that her father was dead, why couldn't she do the same for her aunt?

The answer was clear. Lily had never actually met her father. At least, she couldn't remember meeting him. Nadia had been a constant fixture in Lily's life up until her fourth birthday. The day Sydney killed her.

"I'm back," Lily said, plopping back down onto the swing. "Keep going."

"So your aunt had come in to check on me..."

****

"Oh wow," Nadia muttered. "I didn't realize those bunch of rags would look so good on you."

"Do not call my wedding dress a bunch of rags, Nadia," Sydney warned playfully. She took in her appearance in the mirror again. To go along with the nature of the ceremony, she had chosen a simple white silk dress with a white satin sash that tied in the back. She had her hair pulled back into a bun, and there was a veil so thin fixed to the top that it was practically non-existent.

"You look like an angel," Nadia whispered, touching the veil lightly. "You are going to knock his socks off."

Sydney watched her sister's face light up as she got an idea. She watched Nadia run out of the tent and return two seconds later with a lotus in her hand. "What am I supposed to do with this?" Sydney asked, taking the flower from her sister's extended hand.

"Put it in your hair. It'll add a little bit of a exotic edge to the little elegant ensemble you have going."

"Is everyone there?" Sydney asked, doing as her sister requested and placing the flower behind her ear. Nadia hesitated in answering her question. "Tell me."

"Everyone except Michael. I don't think he's coming, Syd."

"Uncle Michael didn't come to your wedding?" Lily asked. She couldn't believe that one of her mother's best friends hadn't been there when her parents got married.

"You remember I said something about a few people not liking your father. Michael was one of those people. He eventually changed his mind, but at the time, he wasn't really happy with the person he thought your father was..."

****

"You actually expected that he would show up, didn't you?" Nadia asked, touching her sister's shoulders lightly.

"I thought that we had enough history that he could forget about his hatred for Sark for one day."

"Sydney," she said hesitantly. "You and I both know that Sark isn't the only reason he isn't here today."

Sydney nodded. Vaughn had gotten married about a year earlier for reasons no one knew at the time. He had gotten divorced two months into his marriage. The night he told her he was leaving his wife was etched in her memory. It was also the night that she told him she was in love with Sark.

Vaughn had shown up on her doorstep saying that marrying Lauren Reed was a mistake. He should have been with Sydney this whole time. He asked her if she had felt the same way.

The only thing she could think of was to tell him that she loved someone else. Yes, there was a point where she would have happily admitted that she was interested. But since that day in the broken elevator at SD-6 and the night in the Parisian park, she hadn't thought about Michael Vaughn in that way.

He hadn't taken it well. She hadn't spoken to him since that night.

"I can't believe you invited him at all," Nadia interrupted her sister's thoughts. "I mean, you haven't spoken to him in forever."

"That doesn't mean he's not one of the best friends I've ever had."

"Your best friends are out there waiting for you, Sydney. He's not there." Nadia grabbed her hand and dragged her to the tent opening which she carefully slid back.

"Who was there, Mommy?"

"Be patient, Lily. I was about to tell you before I was so rudely interrupted."

"Sorry."

"That's all right."

****

Sydney could see her parents sitting in the front row. Behind them was Will Tippin and his latest girlfriend. She couldn't keep their names straight. Ever since he started working for the New York Times, it was like he was a celebrity. There was a new girl every day of the week. She thought it might have something to do with the way that Francie died, but she would never bring the topic up with him.

Next to Will was Marshall and Carrie. They had brought little Mitch along with them. Sydney was happy to see him playing in the sand and enjoying the beautiful day. It was nice to see someone perfectly content with their life.

The only other guests were Eric Weiss and Dixon. They were both sitting in the back row, looking not too happy to be there. Sydney didn't mind that. At least they had showed up. That meant a lot to her.

"It's time," Nadia whispered. "Are you sure about this?"

Sydney paused in her story telling.

"What did you say?" Lily asked.

"My mind jumped back to the first day I realized that I might love your father. The day in that elevator..."

****

"It's fate," she answered simply.

"It's not going to be easy."

"Would you stop trying to talk me out of something that I've never been more sure of? It's infuriating. You're infuriating."

Nadia rolled her eyes. "And you told me that you always wanted a sister."

Lily looked up at her mother. "I want a sister, too. But I don't need one."

"Well, why would you say that?"

"I know that for me to have a little sister, you would have to find a new Daddy. I don't want a new Daddy. I like my first one."

Sydney stared down at her daughter in shock as tears crept into her eyes.

"What's wrong, Mommy?"

"That was really sweet, Lily. Thank you."

This was one of those moments when Sydney knew she had done the right thing, sacrificing her sister to keep on living. There were times when all her life was amounted to pain and sadness. But these little glimpses of pure happiness. They were what kept her going.

"You'll never guess what happened next," she said, returning to the safety of storytelling in the hopes that it might keep her from crying anymore than she already had.

"What?"

"It started to rain..."

****

The rain came pouring down the second Sydney started walking down the aisle. It robbed her of getting to see the look on Sark's face when he saw her. Instead, Sark's face was pointed up to the sky, looking like he was going to kill whomever was responsible for the intrusion.

The handful of guests ran straight into the tent Sydney had just vacated. She heard Dixon whisper something about it being a sign, but she just ignored him. Again, she expected the bitterness but was just happy he was here.

Her mother worked her way over to her. "I think that maybe the wedding should be put off for another day. You don't want to get married in a torrential downpour. I know how much you love Julian. You want this day to be perfect."

Sydney nodded, happy her mother was taking charge. She had still not locked eyes with her husband-to-be and was scanning the room trying to find where he was standing.

"Your Grandma knew that I was too upset inside to handle it myself. So she told everyone that the rain didn't seem to be stopping anytime soon, and we would just have to try again some time in the future."

"Didn't it bother you?"

"The not getting married? A little bit. But I knew my mother had a whole perfect day planned in her head and I didn't want to let her down." Sydney stood up and offered her hand to her daughter. "Let's go for a walk. My legs are starting to cramp on this swing."

They walked along a small dirt path into a grove of trees. "What happened after everyone left?"

Sydney smiled at her daughter. "I know what you're wondering. You're thinking, I asked for the story of the day Mommy and Daddy got married, not the story of the day they almost got married. I was just getting to that part. It all started when your Daddy finally looked at me for the first time..."

****

She could feel the weight of his eyes on her. "Hi," she said lightly as they finally were left alone together in the tent.

"I never dreamed that this day would come."

"What day is that?" she said, acting coy.

"The day when I would look at a woman standing across from me and realize that I would die if she weren't mine. The day that I saw the love of my life in a white dress and was thankful she saw through all the bullshit walls I've put up for years. The day I realized that what my father had always told me was wrong. Someday I would find a woman who made me want to be a better person. God, I love you, Sydney."

"I love you, too." She crossed the small space between them and let him envelop her in his arms.

"That flower looks beautiful in your hair," he said, fingering it lightly.

"Nadia made me put it there."

"It was a good idea. Did you know that the lotus is my favorite flower? They stand for rebirth."

"Fitting," she said with a smile. "I'll try to remember that."

Sark pulled her back away from him a little bit and looked her in the eyes. "I've never seen you look so perfect. Beautiful, yes. Every day. But perfection like this only comes around once in a lifetime."

"It's a shame we have to waste this," she said sadly, snuggling back into his arms and taking in the smell of his cologne with a happy sigh.

"What a waste of a perfect day, right?" Sydney said to her daughter. They bent down to start picking up rocks. This was a habit of theirs, a way to remember the different places they went. Sydney hadn't told her daughter that it was a habit she had picked up when she went on the many exotic dates she had with Sark. Exotic dates that just happened to be connected to SD-6 missions, but still, dates none the less in their minds.

"Daddy actually said all those nice things to you?"

"I know. It was like someone took control of his mouth. Some monster under his bed." Lily giggled, and Sydney patted her on the head lightly. "I'm just kidding, sweetheart. Your father was always saying nice things like that. Only for me, though. That's one of the perks of being in love. You can say whatever mushy thing you want and it never seems silly..."

****

"Who says it's a waste?" Sark said, a familiar gleam springing up in his eye.

"What are you thinking about, Julian?"

"Well, I thought that maybe we would go through with this whole wedding thing still."

"Everyone's gone home," she pointed out.

"Not the priest," he said smirking. "That's the only important person."

"It's raining."

"I've never known rain to kill anyone."

"Pneumonia," Sydney pointed out.

"That's stupid," he said, glaring at her playfully. They both knew that they had been in plenty of situations that could have ended up with them getting pneumonia or hypothermia before. It was silly to use that as a reason now.

"My mother would kill me if she knew that you and I got married and she wasn't there."

"Your mother doesn't have to know. We can get married now, and have another ceremony later on." He grabbed her hand and pulled her outside into the rain, ignoring her protests. "See. The rain's not even cold."

"That's not a reason."

"I don't think you should be arguing with me, Sydney."

"All I do is argue with you, Julian. It keeps the relationship from becoming too dull."

"Well, let me win on this one." He pulled her into his arms and kissed her heavily. "I don't think I can go another day without knowing you'll be by my side."

"And do you know what I did?" she asked Lily. "For the first and only time in our relationship, I let him win. I didn't want to go another day without him either."

Lily reached out her arms, and Sydney hefted her up onto her hip. "Your father and I stood out in the pouring rain with only an extremely agitated priest and got married. And you know what?"

"What?"

"It was perfect. And your Daddy was right. Perfect days are one in a million."


	4. An Adult Story

Sydney couldn't believe that she was actually going to have a day to herself. It had been years since she had any free time that didn't involve Lily in some way. Not that she really minded it.

Her father had seen how much the past few weeks had taken out of her. When he asked her what was wrong, she reluctantly told him about Lily's constant demand for stories about her father. Jack chalked it up to a daughter being curious of where she came from. He said it was bound to happen sooner or later.

So Jack had taken her daughter away to Disneyland for the day. To give Sydney some much needed peace and quiet, as he put it.

She had told him that there was no such thing as peace and quiet when it came to her life. But it seemed like she had been wrong. There hadn't been one phone call or unwanted disturbance all morning. She was almost unnerved by it.

Which is why, when the doorbell rang as she sat down to eat a sandwich for lunch, she was almost happy to hear it. It was just too strange for her not to be on the go constantly.

"Will," she said in surprise when she saw him standing on her doorstep. "What brings the big New York Times journalist to my humble abode?"

Will laughed and gave her a small kiss on the cheek while crossing the threshold. "I just write a few features every once in a while."

"You're on the front page weekly," she reminded him. "Seriously, what brings you here?"

"I just wanted to talk to you about a few things that I never got around to discussing."

"As long as it doesn't involve me telling a story, I'd be happy to."

Will grinned at her suspiciously. "It kind of does involving you telling me a story. Is that a big deal?"

"Lily's been asking me to tell her stories about her father practically every day for the past few weeks. I'm getting a little tired of dredging up the pain. Which is why my dad took her away on a little holiday."

"We can do this later if it's a bad time." He made a move to head back out the door.

She shut the door before he could leave. "No, it's fine. At least with you I don't have to filter what I say. What did you want to talk about?"

"Sark, actually."

"My husband sure is a popular topic these days." Sydney took a seat on the couch and gestured for Will to sit next to her, which he did. "So, what do you want to know?"

"I was writing an article the other day on the reasons why most friendships break up, why people drift off. And it made me think of you, Sydney. We used to be best friends before the whole Allison Doren incident. I was practically the only thing you could count on."

"And you want to know what happened?"

"No. I know what happened. You got caught up in your crazy spy life, and I got caught up in trying to rebuild the life I once had. We were both busy. I mean, I never disappeared completely. I was there for your wedding, and I've been here for you and Lily since Sark died. But there are just so many things I wasn't here for. If a couple years ago someone had told me everything I would miss, I wouldn't have believed them."

"You didn't miss that much," Sydney insisted.

"I missed you having to kill your own sister. I heard about the whole thing over a month after it happened. And that was from your father who never really liked me."

"I know I should have told you."

"You shouldn't have had to. I mean, you just killed your own flesh and blood. I should have been in your life enough to know that you needed me."

"This sounds almost as if you're about to propose marriage," she joked.  
  
"Well, I have been waiting an awfully long time," he said with a sly grin. "Seriously, though. I want to know about some of the things I've missed."

"Like Nadia's death?"

"Yes, I do want to know about that but not right now. You've got too much on your plate already to be reliving those memories. For now, all I want to know is how you told everyone that you loved Sark. It must have taken a lot of courage."

Sydney rolled her eyes. "You know that story, Will."

"No, I honestly don't. I had heard about it from Marshall right after it happened, but I didn't believe him. Then I got an invitation to your wedding in the mail. The only reason I came was I thought it was a joke."

"If you hadn't thought that, if you knew it was real, you still would have came."

"True. But I might have been a little better prepared."

"So, you want me to tell you how I told the old gang that I was in love with the man that most of them either hated or feared?"

"Most of them?"

"My mother always thought he was a godsend."

"Figures. Irina can never go with the crowd."

"It's her thing." Sydney paused to collect her thoughts for a moment and then began. "It all started when Vaughn decided to divorce his wife..."

****

Michael Vaughn took a deep breath and knocked on Sydney's front door. If she wasn't home, he didn't know what he'd do. The things he had to say to her couldn't wait any longer. It was time she knew the truth.

Sydney opened the door quickly and stared at the man in front of her. "What are you doing here, Michael?"

"Nice greeting," he said, walking past her and into the house.

"You haven't been to my house in two months. Not since..." Her voice trailed off. She had moved on, but she still couldn't say Lauren's name.

"Since my marriage," he filled in. "I know that it hurt you, Syd. I'm sorry."

"It's fine. I'm fine."

"You could never lie to me," he said, smiling at her again.

"I'm not lying."

He nodded in a way that made her think he didn't believe her and started to look around.

"My initial reaction at this point was to kick him to the curb. He was acting so strange. I mean, we hadn't spoken a word outside of mission context in two months and now all the sudden he was on my doorstep."

"Didn't he divorce Lauren after two months?" Will asked.

"Exactly..."

****

"What do you want, Michael?" she asked, getting tired of his odd behavior.

"That's the second time you've called me Michael tonight," he pointed out.

"What's your point?"

"You never used to call me that."

"You used to mean something to me then." As soon as she said it, she wished she could take it back. Purposely saying hurtful things was not something she usually did.

"I hated saying that. I mean, he meant so much to me once."

"You two always had a lot of potential."

"Potential that was never acted on. He got married." Sydney knew that what she was saying would, under any other circumstance, have come out bitter. But it just seemed like a statement of fact now. "It didn't seem to faze him much, though..."

"You still mean something to me, if that's any consolation." He took a seat on the sofa.

"What do you want?" She crossed her arms and leaned against the doorway.

"Marrying Lauren was a mistake. The biggest screw-up I think I've ever made. I didn't realize what a horrible decision it would turn out to be then."

"Don't be stupid," Sydney said. "You love your wife. She's your whole world, Michael."

"I don't think I ever loved Lauren. She wasn't who I thought she was."

"I don't see why you had to come to my doorstep to tell me all of this."

"I'm getting a divorce, Sydney." He said it so quiet that she almost didn't hear him. Almost.

He looked up to her and saw that she was staring at him and nodding slowly.

"I really think he believed that I would take him back with open arms."

"But you didn't. Because you had Sark."

"Everyone knows this now, but he was a good man. He always had been. He just had his problems like every one of us."

"At least he didn't have a bad habit of ruining his life," Will pointed out.

"That ability is specifically your forte. Anyway, I stood there nodding, trying to figure out where to go from there. I think Vaughn took it as an invitation..."

Vaughn got up and walked over to where she was standing. He pulled her arms apart and grasped both her hands in his. "Don't you see what this means?"

She didn't say anything, and he moved in to kiss her. Before his lips made contact, she pulled away and walked to the other half of the room.

"I think it was at that point that he recalled the conversation I had with him before his wedding." She couldn't help but blush. "I was a little drunk the night before the ceremony and I kind of found myself on his doorstep swearing at him for giving up on what we might have had."

"You didn't?"

"You know what tequila does to me..."

He smirked at her. "You're not still mad at me about giving up, are you? Contrary to what you believe, I don't think I ever gave up on us, on our potential. Not in my heart. I love you, Sydney."

"He just stood there, beaming at me. Don't get me wrong. Vaughn is my friend. He always will be. But that day, it was almost as if I didn't know who he was."

"Sounds like he was acting like Sark," Will observed. When Sydney looked at him questioningly, he elaborated. "He was cocky and sure that you would come running back into his arms. He figured that you had just been pining away for him the past two months."

"That does sound like my husband," she agreed.

"So, what happened when he said he loved you?"

"I didn't know what to say. So I said nothing..."

****

The silence was excruciating. She just didn't know what to say to him to let him know that she had given up on them ever being together. With Sark, she had moved on from the place she had once been.

"Syd?" he asked hesitantly. She still didn't answer. "Don't... don't you love me, Syd?"

"Now you know the proper response to that, don't you?"

Will smiled at her. "It's been so long that I've finally dealt with the fact that you weren't coming back. Things aren't the same anymore. There was a reason you married Lauren, and that just couldn't have disappeared overnight. I don't think we're in the same place as we once were. I want to be on my own for a little while to figure things out."

"Any of those would have been great to say to him. They wouldn't have hurt him too much, you know?" She looked sheepishly at one of her best friends. "But do you know what actually came out of my mouth?"

****

"But I love Sark."

"You did not?" Will practically screamed, his mouth hanging open. "What a way to lay it all on the guy at once."

She laughed at his reaction. "I know. I immediately wished I could take it back. But it was out on the table. There was nothing I could do, but try to explain..."

****

"Oh god. I shouldn't have said that." She sat down and put her head in her hands. All of the sudden, she just wanted to hide from Vaughn. When she finally chanced a look up at him, she saw he was staring out here intently. "I'm sorry. There was probably a better way to tell you that."

"You're lying to hurt me," he hissed decidedly through his teeth. "I know that my marriage has hurt you a lot, but I didn't think you'd stoop this low to get revenge."

She felt a little anger flare up inside of her. At that second, she knew that the hiding was over. She had to tell Vaughn, and everyone else, what she had been doing with Sark. "It's not a lie. He was there for me when I needed him."

"I know there was something between us at one point, Sydney."

"Yes, at one point I would have given up the world just to be with you. If you had asked me then, I would have told you that I loved you with all my heart in a second."

"You can't deny that even after I got married you still wanted me?"

"Of course I wanted you," she hissed. "I loved you. But eventually I got to the point where I only thought about what we had lost every other second. And then it became once every half-hour. Then only a couple of times a day. And finally I stopped thinking about what might have been all together. And do you know why I was able to do that?"

Vaughn shook his head. She looked at him coldly. "Because of Sark. He told me that I didn't have to pretend when I was with him. If I wanted to say something to him that would be hurtful or inappropriate, I was free to do so. For the first time in my life, I got to be the real me."

"I don't think I realized how much I had come to love Julian until that moment." She smiled at the memory. "Vaughn and I fought forever about whether I was lying or not. He eventually accepted it as truth."

"I never thought you would actually love a murderer," Vaughn said, deliberately not looking her in the eyes.

"You almost punched him at that point, didn't you?" Will asked with a chuckle. "The Sydney Bristow I know wouldn't take a comment like that sitting down."

"I had to use a little self-restraint, yes..."

****

"And you have no right to be criticizing him. He never abandoned me when I needed him."

"That hurts." Vaughn placed a hand absentmindedly over his heart.

"It should. I gave up my love of Danny for the prospect of forming a relationship with you. I sped up my mourning because I thought if I hesitated, I would lose you. And when I was finally ready to tell you how much I loved you, you got married."

"Sounds like you laid it on thick," Will observed.

"I was so mad at him." Sydney sighed. "I acted irrationally. I yelled at him when I should have been gentle. He had come to me finally willing to say he loved me, and I mocked him. It was no wonder that he simply got up and left."

"He walked away."

"Didn't even put up a fight." She shook her head. "You know, I really would have thought if he loved me, he would have put up a fight."

"So what happened then?"

"I didn't talk to Vaughn for years. He didn't show up when I invited him to the wedding." Tears began to form in her eyes at the next memory that popped into her head. "The next time I saw him was at the funeral for Julian. He apologized to me."

"He admitted that he was wrong about Sark."

"And about me. I really wish he could have been around to get to know Julian like the rest of you did. All of you considered him your friend."

"It turned out he was a great guy," Will said, shaking his head. "I still can't believe that. A part of me is screaming that there was no way this guy should have been the right one for you."

"Yeah. You always knew that you were my soul mate, didn't you?" She poked him lightly in the side.

"Hey! I'm just saying we should have at least given it a real shot. The closest we came was a few awkward kisses."

"You won't ever quit, will you?"

"Not until you admit that I am the only one for you." Together they laughed until they cried.

When they had gotten control of themselves again, Will asked, "So how did you tell everyone else?"

"It wasn't as hard as I thought. In typical Irina fashion, my mother loved the idea. My father was furious, but he warmed up to the idea eventually. Most of my friends at the CIA didn't talk to me for a few weeks. But eventually they realized there has to be something else to this guy if I was able to fall in love with him. That's the one thing I got out of all the suffering and pain it took me to tell everyone. The people in my life are so amazing."

"You didn't tell me," Will pointed out.

"I thought everyone else would overreact, but I knew with you it was a given. So I put it off. Eventually, Marshall let it slip."

"And I didn't believe him."

"But you came to my wedding." Sydney slid her hand into his. "And you came to Sark's funeral. And you were here for Lily and I. You've been watching over us for years now. In my mind, that's all the matters."

Will let her cuddle up to his side and just sat there holding her in his arms. It had taken years, but he truly thought they might have finally gotten back to the place they once were.

"I love you, Will," she whispered.

"I love you, too, Syd."

She looked up at him. "Platonically of course."

"What else is there?" he said with a wink.


	5. A Beach Story

The phone echoed through the house. It had been ringing non-stop all morning for no good reason, and this time Sydney was too tired to answer it. After ten rings, it finally quieted.

Sighing, she relaxed, slumping down a little farther in her chair where she was comfortably positioned for a morning of recreational reading. This was something she hadn't done in years. She was quite looking forward to it.

But her body stiffened as she realized that the house didn't quite return to complete silence. She could hear Lily chattering away.

"The phone," she growled, pulling herself up and trudging downstairs.

When she reached the kitchen, she found Lily standing in the middle of the floor grinning at her in a rather guilty way. "What did you do, young lady?" she asked her suspiciously, narrowing her eyes.

"I told Uncle Will that he could take you and me to the beach today."

Sydney smiled. That wasn't as bad as it could have been. "Is he on his way over?"

"He said that he was just down the road and would be here in ten minutes."

Sydney gave her daughter a sly look and cracked a smile. "Do you know what that means?"

Lily giggled. "That means we have to hurry."

"Right!" Sydney yelled. "Race you to see who gets ready first!"

Both Bristows ran through the house like madwomen trying to pack their bags before the other one was done. Naturally, Lily was done a full two minutes before Sydney.

"It's because I had to pack all the Mom stuff like sunscreen and aloe vera," she complained.

Lily just shook her head. "You lost fair and square, Mommy. Accept defeat at the hands of the better man." Sydney gave her a funny look. "I heard it from Uncle Eric."

She rolled her eyes as the sounds of tires moving gravel echoed in the driveway.

"Uncle Will!" Lily screamed and made a beeline for outside.

Sydney watched her daughter go running into the arms of her best friend. Smiling, she just stared at the two of them as they started to play wrestle on the front yard. The last few weeks had been nice with Will being around so much.

An outsider would assume that he was just making a play for Sydney's affections after what he had determined was a long enough period of mourning and celibacy. But she knew better.

Simply put, Will had just missed being around her as much as she missed being around him. And he really was a godsend with Lily.

Sydney smiled at Will caught her eye through the window and waved. She waved back, grabbed the two beach bags, and headed out the door.

Like clockwork, the second they were all in the car and had retreated into a comfortable silence, Lily made a request. "Can I hear a story on the way to the beach?"

Sydney smiled at her ever-persistent daughter and nodded. "What do you want to hear about? The time I rescued Will from some people who were trying to hurt him? Or maybe the time I had to bail him out of jail because he got caught in the wrong place at the wrong time? Or how I first found out that he still loves eighties hair bands?"

"Don't knock Poison and Kiss," Will muttered mostly to himself.

"I want to hear about the day Daddy proposed to you."

"That's a long story," Sydney warned.

"You have all day to tell it," Will pointed out. "Besides, I kind of want to hear it, too. I never did find out just how he got you to say yes."

"Well, he didn't hold me at gunpoint if that's what you mean."

"Why would he hold you at gunpoint?" Lily asked.

Will and Sydney exchanged a knowing look. "No reason, sweetheart," Sydney said a second later. "Where to begin... I know! Your father and I had been fighting for most of the day."

"Typical," Will mumbled.

"Shut up," Sydney warned. "I don't even remember what it was about..."  
  
**"Ferris Bueller's Day Off was hands down the best movie of that came out of that decade," Sydney said. She was sitting in the passenger's seat of the BMW Sark was currently racing in and out of the small country road in Italy that they were driving and cleaning her favorite gun.**

"No way," Sark said, without taking his eyes off the road. "You're overlooking John Hughes' best work. I mean, come on. But what we found out, is that each one of us is a brain, and an athlete, and a basket case, a princess, and a criminal. That's genius!"

"Oh for crying out loud. If we're going to get into the Brat Pack movies, Sixteen Candles was so much better than the Breakfast Club."

"That's blasphemy."

"That's the truth." She clicked her gun back together with a satisfying snap. "Are you trying to get me to shoot you or does it just come natural to infuriate me this much?"

Sark pushed his sunglasses down his nose an inch so that she could see his eyes as he glanced over at her. "You know, I think it's all part of our charm. I mean, who else spends their one-year anniversary chasing down wanted criminals through the Italian countryside?"

"Speaking of," Sydney pointed at the road in front of them, "I think Giovanni and Marcello are getting away."

"Your father and I were on business for the bank. If I remember correctly, it was some conference held in Italy. Your father had surprised me with tickets a few days earlier."

"How exciting," Will said, not enthused at all.

Sydney shot him a look. "For someone who worked at Credit Dauphine for so many years, being able to leave the country was a very exciting thing. Plus, there were a few men that I had met at previous conferences that I wanted to track down."

Will grinned. "I get it," he whispered.

"What happened next?" Lily asked. Sometimes she got so mad at her mother and Will. It was like when they were together they talked in a secret code.

"Well, we ran into the men that I had wanted to see..."

****

Realizing he had no option and praying that he would be forgiven for this horrible crime one day, Sark rammed the front end of the BMW into the Volvo in front of them. The car spun out of control and off the road, coming to rest against the guardrail. He pulled their car to a stop. "Do you want to do the honors or should I?"

"I'll do it," Sydney said, stepping out of the car.

Sark watched her cross in front of where he was sitting. She ripped open one of the car doors and dragged both the men out, throwing them down onto the dirt hard. "God, I love watching her work."

"Hold on," Lily said, sticking her head between the two front seats. "Daddy proposed to you at a bank convention. I thought you said he was romantic."

"We were in Italy," Sydney said, as if that made everything okay.

"Aren't they hairy over there? Martina O'Reyers says they don't shave any of their hair and they don't bathe for weeks. She says the whole country smells like someone died."

"How many times have I told you not to repeat what that wretched O'Reyers girl says?" Sydney said sternly. "She is a pathological liar."

"Does she know what 'pathological' means?" Will asked.

"It means caused by or evidencing a mentally disturbed condition. In this case, it refers to a person who cannot help but lie about everything and anything they say," Lily responded matter-of-factly.

"Have you been letting her read the dictionary again?"

Sydney shrugged. "I can't help it. She gets bored."

"Enough about me. Let's get back to Daddy."

"Where was I?"

"You had just met your friends in Italy."

"Right. Well, I visited them real quick..."

****

Sydney walked back to the car wiping the small amount of blood that had splattered on her face off with the bottom of her shirt. She smirked at Sark's impressed look as she slid back into the car.

"That surpassed anything you've ever done," he said.

"Thank you. It's good to know that I'm not rusty."

Sark shifted the car into drive and spun the tires out as they took off. "Personally, I wouldn't have shot them in the legs, but you've always been soft."

"Unlike some people, I don't take pleasure in killing for fun."

"You should try it. You might get a taste for it."

"Your father and I spent the rest of the day just relaxing on some of the beaches nearby. It was nice."

Lily and Will exchanged looks of disgust as they recognized Sydney drifting off into her happy thoughts. "Are we ever going to get to the good stuff?" Will demanded.

"Be patient," Sydney said with a smile. "I was just getting to it..."

****

Sydney was standing knee deep in the water, letting the waves hit her gently. She could feel Sark behind her before she felt his arms wrap around her stomach. "Couldn't bear not touching you," he whispered in her ear.

She smiled and turned to look at him. "How much time do you think we have before we have to go back to the States?"

"Enough," he said leaning in for a kiss.

"Is it all going to be as sappy as this?" Will asked as they pulled into a parking space. "Because if it is, I request a subject change."

"No!" Lily said forcefully. "I want to hear about this."

Will patted her on the head lightly. "Calm down, squirt. I was just kidding."

"Are we done with the interruptions?" Sydney asked. When no one responded, she continued, "Your daddy and I had a nice dinner at a nearby beachside restaurant..."

****

"Did you ever think we would get to this day?" Sark asked.

"What day are you speaking about?" Sydney asked, playing dumb.

"You. Me. Three-hundred-sixty-five days. No one dead."

She laughed loudly calling attention to the two of them. "No, I never thought it would be possible. Good thing you decided to seduce me on that elevator."

Sark grabbed her hand abruptly. "Let's take a walk."

"That's so unoriginal," Will complained. "A walk on the beach? I bet he dropped to one knee and said he couldn't live another day without you."

"What's so wrong with that?" Sydney hissed.

"He did!" Will shouted with glee. "The original Mr. Suave can't even come up with original material for his own marriage proposal."

"Are you telling the story or is Mommy, Uncle Will?" Lily asked.

"Sorry," he apologized.

"Continue."

"Yes, drill sergeant. So, your father and I went on a stroll down the beach by ourselves. The stars were out, and it was just the most perfect night in the whole world."

"More perfect than your wedding day?" Lily said remembering her mother's words when she was telling the story of that rainy day.

"Not more perfect. Just perfect in the same way."

"So then what happened?"

"He got down on one knee and told me that he had never loved anyone as much as he loved me. That I was his whole world. He pulled the most gorgeous ring I had ever seen out of his back pocket and asked me to marry him."

"Wow," Lily said. Her naive little mind let her believe her mother's words without wondering why there wasn't that much detail to the story.

Will looked at Sydney suspiciously. She merely avoided eye contact. In response, he pulled a five-dollar bill out of his back pocket and held it out to Lily. "Why don't you go buy some ice cream and take it down by the water to eat?"

She whipped the money out of his hand. "Thanks, Uncle Will!" she called over her shoulder as she ran off.

Will and Sydney sat in silence for a few minutes before she asked him the obvious question. "Why did you just get rid of my daughter?"

"Because I know you and Sark both. And I know what you just told her wasn't even close to the real story. I want to hear it."

She sighed. "It was that obvious?"

"To us grown-ups, yes. To a seven-year-old girl, not so much."

"Well, it was pretty much all the truth up until the proposal part. At least, it was a half-truth with the old business acquaintances, but what mother could actually tell her daughter that her parents used to threaten and kill people for a living?"

"You're forgetting that both of her grandparents did the same thing, too. Eventually, you're going to have to tell her."

"And why is that?"

"She'll need to know what's needed of her to take over the family business."

Sydney slapped him hard on the arm. "That isn't even funny."

"I got that," he said rubbing his arm with a little too much drama than was necessary. "So, hurry up and tell the rest of the story before Lily comes back."

"Fine. We were going on a stroll down the beach, like I said, when, for whatever reason, the topic of a more permanent arrangement came up..."

****

"So, what do you think about making this permanent?" Sark asked.

She looked at him in disgust. "Okay. That was so not romantic at all. Do you want to try again?"

"I just wanted to know where you stood on this. Because word around the office has been you've sworn off men completely and are now a lesbian. And I would kind of like to know if that was true."

"Why does everyone think I've switched sides?"

"Well, you haven't really had any sort of noticeable relationship in a year. People figure there has to be a good reason why you're keeping your love life secret all of the sudden. I mean, you went from openly pinning for people you couldn't have or people who had died loving you to nothing. You have to admit it is a little odd in retrospect."

"I guess," she said, kicking up a little sand. "That still doesn't give anyone a right to insinuate things about my sexual preferences."

"People will talk."

Sydney glared at him. "This is all a joke to you, isn't it?"

"Before he had a chance to refuse or deny it, there were gunshots ringing through the air."

"In typical Sydney Bristow fashion, right?"

"It just wouldn't be a momentous event if there weren't some sort of gunplay to it..."

****

Sark pushed Sydney down onto the sand, making sure that his body covered as much of hers as possible. She started to elbow him in the side. "Move. You're making me swallow sand," she hissed.

Scanning the distance, he let her squirm out from under him as the gunshots slowed down to a trickle. "I don't think your job from earlier was finished," he said pointing to a figure down the beach. "That looks like Marcello to me."

"Damnit!" she screamed getting up and stomping towards him. "I told him if he tried to retaliate I would have to kill him. Why do these men always force me to do evil things?"

"Because that's our job?" Sark supplied.

She rolled her eyes and pulled her gun out from where it was concealed.

Will placed his baseball hat on top of his face, which was burning from the heat of the sun. "You know, I don't think I will ever understand where you women put your guns when you wear those skintight dresses we men love so much."

"It's a secret of the trade. I would have to take off one of your limbs if I told you."

"Leg holster would have been an adequate answer to satisfy my curiosity, you know."

"But that isn't the right answer," she said with a sly grin. "But let's not talk about that. Where was I? Oh that's right! I let my temper get the best of me and was chasing after Marcello..."

****

"Who the hell do you think you are?" Sydney screamed as she fired a few warning shots in his direction. He took off almost immediately in the other direction. She looked back at her boyfriend. "Why do they always run?"

"Because they don't realize they can't win." He watched her take off after Marcello. "At least, he hasn't realized it yet." With a sigh, he began to try to catch up to his crazy gun-toting girlfriend.

"When he caught up to me, the fight was pretty much over." She grimaced at the memory. "If I had known what he was planning on doing that night, I think I might have tried to be a little neater about it..."

****

"Jesus, Bristow! Can't you be normal and worry about getting stains on your dress?" Sark yelled.

Sydney looked down at the few bloodstains that were now soaking into her new Dolce dress. "This always happens when I buy a new piece of clothing," she mumbled as she half-heartedly tried to rub the stain out.

"At least it's not any of your blood."

Before Sydney could respond, she saw Sark's face pale.

"It seems like Marcello wasn't alone in his little escapade of revenge. He brought a number of rather hefty looking Italian men with him."

"So what did you two do?" Will moved the hat away from his eyes.

"The only thing we could do. We threw caution to the wind and attacked them before they could launch any sort of offensive move." She glanced over at him. "I mean, my dress was already ruined so what did I have to lose..."

****

Sydney and Sark worked without any words exchanging between them. They had been functioning as partners for so long that they didn't need them.

Before anyone could blink, everyone except for Sark and Sydney were down on the ground either dead or moaning in great pain. Sydney stood with her gun in her hand off to the side, making sure that no one moved to attack them again. She looked over to where Sark was on one knee, resting for a moment. The fight seemed to have taken a lot out of him.

"You okay?"

"I'm fine." He looked up at her. "So what do you think?"

"About what?" she asked, not really paying attention.

"Getting married."

She turned to him. "You're seriously asking me?"

"Yeah."

Lowering the gun, she looked at where he kneeled. "Are you crazy?"

"Crazy about you," he said, knowing that she would find humor in the completely obvious pick-up line.

"You're actually proposing to me over a bunch of dead and wounded bodies?"

"What better time is there?"

She rolled her eyes. "I don't know. Maybe after a nice night at home. Or even a quiet walk in the park. Heck! I'd take a proposal over a Big Mac and fries over this."

"Well this is what you're getting," he said, pulling a ring out of his back pocket.

"Typical Sark, right?" Sydney said, smiling to her best friend as her daughter stumbled her way back through the crowd and over to their beach blankets.

"Yeah, typical Sark," Will agreed.

"Are you still telling the story?" Lily asked, plopping down beside her mother.

"Will's a little slow sometimes, honey. I had to start over a few times before he could understand the story." Will glared at her. "But we're right about at the part where you and I left off earlier. Your daddy had just asked me to marry him..."

****

"Well, if this is all I'm getting, I might have to pass." Sydney gave him one last look and began walking back up the beach to where the restaurant was.

Sark ran after her and caught up rather quickly. "So, is that a no?"

"Of course it's not a no, you idiot," she said, punching him lightly on the arm. "But I just wanted you to know that it wasn't the best proposal ever."

"I thought it fit nicely," he said honestly.

Stopping, she turned to look at him and found herself studying his face. At that moment, she realized something.

"I decided at that moment that he was right. It did fit nicely. In fact, it was the perfect proposal. I just didn't see it at first."

****

"I believe that just might have been the perfect proposal for our relationship," she said. She tentatively held out her hand and allowed him to slip the ring onto it. "My father is going to flip."

"Do we have to tell him?" Sark asked, sliding her newly ringed hand into his.

"I'll give you a few days head start, I guess."

Sydney finished packing up their beach stuff and began to walk with Lily and Will back to his car. "And that was how your father and I got engaged."

Lily buckled in. "That was a good story, Mom. Have you ever considered becoming a professional storyteller?"

"What? Like Mr. Rogers?" Will asked as he turned out onto the street.

"Don't knock Mr. Rogers," Sydney warned. "He had a very lucrative career. And those cardigan sweaters never went out of style. The man was a genius."

They sat in silence for a few miles, just listening to the radio. Eventually, Lily got bored and asked, "Will you tell me another story, Mommy?"

"Not today, sweetie," Sydney replied. "It's getting late and you have to go straight to bed when we get home."

"How far are we?" Lily asked, her eyes drooping slightly.

"We're about two minutes away," Will answered.

True to his statement, approximately two minutes later Will pulled his car into Sydney's driveway. Sydney ushered a half-asleep Lily out of the car. Then, she walked around to stand by the driver's side window. "Thank you for today, Will. It's been fun."

"It was my pleasure." Will kissed her lightly on the cheek before placing the car into reverse and backing out of the driveway.

Sydney smiled and walked over to where her daughter was standing before their front stoop. "Why didn't you go inside, sweetie?"

"You got flowers, Mommy," Lily said pointing to a bouquet that was resting on the first step.

Sydney bent down and picked them up. "Why don't you go inside, Lily, and brush your teeth? Mommy will be inside in a minute."

Too tired to argue, Lily nodded and went inside. The second she was out of sight, Sydney let herself crumple to the ground. In her hand was a dozen lotus flowers.

Her mind raced with a few specific memories. Nadia, placing the flower in her hair on the day of her wedding. Sark, telling her that it was his favorite flower. Nadia, calling the lotus exotic. The last thing that ran through her head before she found the strength to go inside and get her daughter ready for bed was what shook her up and confused her the most. They were Sark's own words.

****

"They stand for rebirth."


	6. A Story For Another Time

Sydney sat at the desk in her bedroom holding a glass of whiskey in her right hand. She had been staring out the window for the last few minutes in an effort to decide if what she was about to put into motion was the right thing. Lily was sleeping the night away in her room down the hall, and hopefully there would be no bad dreams to wake her up that night. Checking the clock, she groaned when she realized that the sun would be coming up in a couple hours.

"I've put this off too long," she said. She reached into the desk and took out a stack of blank paper and a pen. Within seconds, the first piece was sitting there ready for her to write on.

The night before, when Lily found that bunch of flowers on their front stoop, Sydney had been thrown off completely. She couldn't remember a time when she was that confused, excited, and terrified all at the same time. It had taken her all that night and the rest of the next day just to be able to process all the different possibilities this delivery created in her mind.

When she had finished going over the options, she was left with one thing. The understanding that it was soon going to be time to tell Lily what exactly happened to her Aunt Nadia. She had to cover all of her bases.

With a sigh, Sydney picked up the pen and began to write...

****

The day began with a simple phone call from her father with the pretext of wishing Lily a happy fourth birthday. After Lily had spoken with her grandpa for a bit, she handed the phone back to her mother.

"Thanks for calling, Dad," Sydney began. "It makes Lily happy to hear your voice even when you can't be here. Where are you now, by the way?"

"The CIA has me stationed in Belize for another week, but then I'll be home to see my two favorite girls." Jack had been spending more and more time on missions that called for more than a snatch and grab. He had been in Chile for a month, the Congo for six weeks, and Turkey for eleven days already that year, and it was only May.

Sydney could tell that her father was being a little more distant than normal. He was keeping something restrained inside him. "Is something wrong?" she asked, not wanting to delay the inevitable.

"It's your sister, Sydney."

Her heart froze at the mention of Nadia. Everyone tried to mention her as little as possible. The situation with her hadn't gotten any better in the last few months. In fact, it had gotten worse.

Sydney paused in her writing, thinking of how she could tell her daughter about the issues that she had been facing at the time. Obviously, she couldn't blurt out to Lily that her mother, father, grandmother, grandfather, aunt, and all the other various pseudo-aunts and uncles she had were all part of a crazy world of spies. It might be time to tell her that Nadia isn't alive somewhere in India, but it certainly wasn't time yet to tell her the whole story of Sydney's life.

"I wonder if she'd believe that Nadia worked for an evil bank..."

****

"What is going on with Nadia?"

"She resurfaced a few days ago in Chicago."

Nadia had been missing, presumed dead, since an altercation she had had with the Chinese government a month earlier. Sydney and her father hadn't believed for one moment that Nadia had died at the time. So it was no surprise to find her up and kicking.

Since Sark's funeral, Nadia had begun to distance herself from her family. At the time, the reason why was not clear.

"Now it makes perfect sense," Sydney muttered as she refilled her glass with more whiskey.

****

Nadia had been meeting with her father on and off, though at the time no one knew it. It seems that she had finally given up on having any semblance of a normal life. Sydney still wasn't sure what went on between Sloane and Nadia during these times, but she attributed all the strain in her relationship with her sister to it.

Looking back, Sydney realized that maybe her sister was just crying out for a little attention. She had been so wrapped up in figuring where her life was heading now that Sark was no longer with her that she hadn't paid any attention to Nadia. She should have been more concerned for her seeing as she had gone through many different upheavals and life-changing events in her few years with the CIA.

"Maybe if I had listened, I could have gotten her a job with the CIA or something more exciting, something to keep her occupied and out of Sloane's evil grasp." She set down the empty whiskey glass and took a deep breath. "I really need to stop blaming myself for everything that's ever gone wrong."

She picked up the pen and started to write again...

Sydney processed the new information that Nadia was alive and kicking. Finally, she said, "So what?"

"Don't act like it means nothing to you, Sydney," her father warned. "We both know what day it is today."

"I don't believe the Rambaldi prophecy," she said firmly.

"Just because you don't believe it doesn't mean it might not come to be. Milo Rambaldi has never been wrong when it comes to our family. I admit that for the first few prophecies we found, I was as skeptical as any other man would be, but everything he's said has come true. You were the woman in the prophecy on Page 47. Even when we tried to prove that wrong, we couldn't succeed."

"How were we supposed to know that there are hundreds of mountains named Subasio in that damn country? It was impossible to succeed."

Jack cleared his throat. "Back to the subject at hand. Milo Rambaldi prophesized that you and your sister would engage in a fatal fight on the fourth anniversary of your life's meaning. At the time we first encountered it, we had no clue what that meant."

"That was before Sark died, and you and I both realized that Lily was the only thing I was living for."

"She's the meaning to your life, and she's turning four today, Sydney."

"So you think Nadia is going to come bursting in here to kill me?" She laughed. "That isn't even close to being likely. Nadia is a free spirit. She's not going to do something just because some man who died hundreds of years ago said it would happen. In fact, if I know my sister, she'll be sure to rebel against the idea."

"That's the point. No one really knows your sister. She hasn't exactly been open to talking about her life before we found her and her connection with Rambaldi."

"It's funny how, even though she's not your daughter by blood, she still inherited your aloofness."

"You need to stop joking and start getting serious," Jack warned.

"Listen, Dad. I refuse to live my life in fear. I did that for months after Sark was killed, and it got me nowhere. I'm not going to keep looking over my shoulder for the day Nadia decides it's time to take the power that Rambaldi unwittingly bestowed upon me."

Jack could tell when his daughter was getting frustrated. "That's fine, Sydney. I'll let you go and celebrate with Lily, then."

"Thank you." Sydney sighed, knowing that the best thing to do was just to hang up the phone now. But she knew that wasn't what she was going to do. "There's something else, though. You better tell me."

"The reason I'm in Belize is because your sister has been running her operations with Sloane here. We didn't recognize it was her at first since she was operating under an alias. I didn't connect her to it until a few hours ago."

"Which is the reason why you called in the first place."

"Yes. You see, the alias has a connection to you, and I thought that might be evidence at first to her still being emotionally tied to you. I think it was meant to upset you and send a message."

"The only thing that would upset me is if it had something to do with Sark."

"Well, I don't think it does. But I think she picked the codename to let you know that she was ready to come after you. She fully intends to carry out the Rambaldi prophecy."

Sydney was getting a little tired of beating around the bush. "Just tell me the name, Dad."

"She's been going by the codename Lotus. Does that mean anything to you?"

"No," she lied. "I have to go. Lily's calling me."

Sydney paused and set the pen down. She remembered the end of that phone call like it was only yesterday. At the time, she had no idea why her sister had selected Lotus as an alias name to work under. It was near impossible for her to know that Nadia had been taunting her inability to save Sark on the day that he died.

She wouldn't piece together the last bits of the puzzle that started on the day Sark died until a few months after she had her confrontation with Nadia on the day she was currently trying to commit to paper. It was hard to believe that the sister she had grown to love had always been so heartless and cruel. Nadia had done such a good job of pretending otherwise that no one had quite realized what she was capable of until it was too late.

The clock was still getting on her nerves as she realized that the first part of the story had taken her nearly forty-five minutes to write. She was just going to have to accept the fact that she would be getting no sleep that night...

****

Trying to put the phone call, and her sister in general, out of her head, Sydney went upstairs to get her daughter dressed for the pool. Vaughn was coming by with his daughter to take Lily out for a little birthday swim. Really it was just to get her out of the house so that Sydney could decorate, but the gesture was nice all the same.

She checked the answering machine quickly before going to her daughter's room. She had really expected Will to call Lily on her birthday, but he hadn't been the most reliable person in her life for years. Which was ironic, considering he used to be the only reliable person.

"Lily? Are you ready?" she called through the open doorway.

She smiled to herself as her four-year-old daughter hopped out of the closet in a little pink party dress and snow boots. Like a true Bristow, she had a knack for fashion. "Honey, I thought I told you that you were going to the pool with Uncle Mike. I don't think you're going to want to get your new dress wet."

"I wanna!" Lily screamed, putting on her pout face.

"I'm sure you do. But I think there might be something better for you to wear." Sydney pulled a package out from behind her back. "What is this?"

Sydney grinned at the memory on her daughter's face as Lily opened up the new bathing suit she had bought her. It had taken her a few months, but on that day, she had finally figured out how to get Lily to wear the correct clothes for the occasion. Simply wrap up the old ones like they're a new present, and give them to her about fifteen minutes before they are supposed to leave.

Placing the sixth page filled with words on top of all the others, she grabbed a new sheet and skipped ahead to after Lily had left with Vaughn...

****

The house was a complete disaster zone. She had approximately one hour to clean it up and one hour to decorate before people would start showing up for the party. She poured herself a glass of iced tea and took a survey of the messy living room. With a sigh, she set the glass down on the table by the window and got started.

"Well, I always did best under pressure," she said, rummaging through the closet for the vacuum.

"You could say that again, sis," came an all too familiar voice from behind her.

Sydney froze in horror as she realized that her father had been right. Hoping this wouldn't end the way she thought it might, she turned to her sister. "Nadia. I'm sorry. Lily's gone to the pool. You're going to have to wait to wish her a happy birthday."

"Cut the crap, Syd. You and I both know that I'm not here to wish my niece a happy birthday."

"Right. If I'm correct, you're here to kill me?"

"You got it." Nadia slid a gun out of her coat. "I didn't really want it to come to this, Sydney."

"It wouldn't have had to if you had just stayed hidden. I mean, how can a prophecy come true if I don't know where you are?"

"I have a feeling that if I didn't show up today, you would have found yourself taking an unexplained and unexpected trip to Belize. Maybe to see your father for his granddaughter's birthday?"

"I wouldn't have done that. If you were watching me as closely as you should have, you should know that I would never take Lily out of this city."

"Afraid the boogieman is going to come and take her away just like he did your husband?"

Sydney glared at her. "Leave Sark out of this. He has nothing to do with what's between us."  
  
"Oh, I think he has everything to do with this situation. Everything."

She threw the pen down. This was getting progressively harder to do. There was no good way to tell your daughter that you had killed her aunt without a thought to the consequences.

"I think a break is in order," Sydney said.

She walked across the hall and was pleased to see that Lily was still asleep in her bed. There wasn't a happier sight in the world than her daughter sleeping soundly without nightmares. Nights like these were few and far between.

Satisfied that Lily was all right, Sydney made her way downstairs to the kitchen, grabbing a drink from the refrigerator. Next she picked up the phone and dialed a familiar number.

"Hello?" Will answered groggily.

"Hi," Sydney said. "I'm sorry to wake you."

"No problem. Is something wrong with Lily?"

"No, nothing's wrong."

"Are you drunk, Syd?"

"Not entirely. God, I wish I was though."

She could hear him sit up in bed on the other half of the line. "Okay. Tell me what's going on right now before I feel obligated to hop in my car and break the speed limit getting over to your house."

"I think that I'm going to have to tell Lily about Nadia's death soon. So I thought maybe I should write it down. Compose my thoughts a little so I'll be prepared when she starts asking questions. It seemed like a good idea at the time."

"Until you started writing it and now all you are is upset."

"Right."

"Do you want me to come over and spend the night, Syd?"

"No, there's no point. I'm going to be up the whole night trying to write this all down anyway."

"Okay. Just checking. You can call me again later if you're still upset."

"Shouldn't you be too busy with that?" she teased. "I mean, the Will Tippin I know wouldn't be alone in his bed right now."

"I'm a pretty pathetic bachelor. Imagine me spending a night alone."

"Thanks, Will."

"For what?"

"For coming back to me."

"Oh now you're going to make me cry, Syd."

"Good night," she said hanging up the phone with a laugh.

Knowing that she hadn't really needed to call Will, that it was just a product of procrastination, she grabbed her glass and went back upstairs. She quickly reread the word she had written down and tried to think of way she could explain to Lily what happened next...

****

Sydney's eyes narrowed at her sister's obvious job at knowing something she didn't. "What do you mean this has everything to do with Julian?"  
  
"Oh come on!" Nadia laughed. It scared Sydney. "You honestly haven't been able to put two and two together. It's been four years, sis. I would have thought that would be plenty of time."

"Time for what?"

"Time to realize that I was the one who killed your precious husband."

Nadia's words chilled her to the bone even to this day. Remembering them was one of the hardest things she had ever done. Sydney knew that she had to keep going, though, if she wanted to get it all down on paper. Another delay would cause her to stop completely...

****

"That isn't possible. You weren't there that day," Sydney said. Oblivious to the fact that Nadia still had a gun trained on her, she walked across the room and sat down on the couch.

"Oh, believe me. I was the one who fired the bullet that pierced his heart." Nadia laughed when she saw her sister begin to cry. "You really had no clue, did you?"

Blinking back the tears, Sydney stood up and walked over to Nadia. "Why the hell did you do it? What was so important that you needed to ruin my life to get it?"

"Funnily enough, it was you. I didn't want to have to face the tough decision of whether or not I should kill my sister."

"So you killed her husband instead? That is the worst logic I have ever heard. And the idea that you did it to try to save me is complete bullshit."

"No, it's not. I never wanted to have to kill you, Sydney. Since the moment you saved me from the prison, you have been nothing but good to me. When I was little I had always wanted a sister and surprise, surprise, I had one. So naturally I didn't want to kill you."

"You got over that one quickly."

Nadia ignored her comment. "I knew the prophecy said that you and I were going to fight over your life's meaning, whatever that was. So I figured the only way to avoid that was to get rid of your life's meaning."

"You're trying to tell me that you destroyed my whole life for my sake?"

"Well, when you put it like that."

Sydney took a break just short enough to pour herself another glass of whiskey. The previous two had begun to wear off, and she knew she needed the buzz. She sat down and got back down to work, praying silently that Lily wouldn't wake up...

****

"I really thought I had gotten it right when I decided to hire those men to kill Sark. I had never seen a woman care for a man as much as you did for him. He seemed to be your whole life." She smirked. "Turns out I got it wrong. It wasn't him. It was the little brat."

Nadia pushed the tip of her gun into her sister's side and forced her down onto the couch. She then took a seat next to her. "You see, I had planned on having them both killed that day. Just to be sure, you know. I hired those men who were supposed to go in and do it."

"Just like that?"

"Just like that."

"Don't you know things never work out that way?"

"I'm learning." Nadia relaxed the gun a little. She knew that Sydney was too distraught to try anything right then. "The plan was simple. They were supposed to kidnap your daughter and bring her to me. Then, they were to shoot Sark and sent you on your way. Simple as that, I wouldn't have to kill you down the road."

"My life would have been destroyed completely."

"It's been destroyed numerous times. You would have rebuilt a new one in no time. It was the perfect plan to make sure that you and I never had to do this. But it didn't work."

"Because of Sark," Sydney said finally understanding. "He figured out what was going on long before you expected him to. I think he may have even tried to warn me."

"I think he did try. Good thing I was watching from above. It gave me a perfect shot to kill him. I was satisfied. I mean, I really didn't think that Lily was the meaning of your life. Not when you loved that bastard so much."

"You were wrong," Sydney said defiantly. She got up and walked over to the window.

"There's no one there for you to cry out to," Nadia warned.

Sydney turned and gave her sister a look that sent shivers down Nadia's spine. "I'm not the one who's going to need help."

Nadia had barely any time to react before Sydney had launched herself at her. They ended up on the ground, Sydney straddling her sister with her hands clutched hard around her sister's throat. Nadia tried without success to break her sister's tight hold, but it wasn't working.

Then, for some reason, Sydney's grip loosened a little. Nadia seized the opening to punch her sister hard in the jaw. The blow sent Sydney sailing off of her and onto the ground. Nadia began to cough as air flooded back into her lungs again.

Her eyes caught on the abandoned glass of tea that Sydney had gotten before this whole thing started. She grabbed the glass and gulped the whole contents down without a thought. The cool liquid felt amazing on her sore throat and neck. "Thanks, sis," she said throatily.

"No problem," Sydney said as she got to her feet.

Nadia picked up the gun she had temporarily dropped when Sydney had tackled her and pointed it at her again. "Well, that was a fun little break to the monotony of me killing you."

She stretched out for a moment, now that she had gotten through most of the hard part. It was strange how in retrospect she found her sister's confession a lot harder than Nadia's actual death.

"It's almost like I knew it was coming. Like it was inevitable," she said to herself, trying to work this new thought out. "I think I might have believed the Rambaldi prophecy all along. Strange."

Her eyes locked on the lotus flowers that she had put in a vase next to her bed. They were still a mystery to her.

"A mystery that I don't have time to figure out right now," she reminded herself. "Back to writing..."

****

"One question before we get into this," Sydney said. "My father told me today that you've been going by the codename Lotus. Why?"

"I thought it was a nice throw back to your wedding. Remember the flower I picked out for you to put in your hair?"

Sydney nodded. So, it looked like her sister didn't actually know the significance of picking the name Lotus. That it was Sark's favorite flower. That it was Lily's middle name. "Why would you want to remind me of my wedding?"

"I wasn't reminding you. I was reminding myself. You and I were happy then. We had a good relationship."

"That was before you got in too deep with your father. Before you gave up any chance at happiness."

"I still have a chance."

"No, you don't. You never really did. And I'm sorry for that."

"You're happy so why can't I be happy? I mean, at least my life has never been destroyed."

"Your life was destroyed when you were little and our mother resigned you to being another one of Rambaldi's pawns. You've spent every second since then trying to get back that life. I don't think it's possible, Nadia. You need to give up."

"And you need to stop stalling. No one's going to whisk in here and save you this time."

"I don't need anyone to save me. I can save myself."

"You don't have a gun."

Sydney smirked. "I don't need a gun."

At the time, she hadn't been surprised at her sarcasm and bravery. It always seemed to pop up when the situation got tough. Looking back on it now, she couldn't understand how she had made it through. She didn't know how she had found the courage to kill her only sister...

****

Nadia laughed at her sister as she clicked the safety off the gun. "I thought you would be a little more scared than this. I was even hoping for a few pleas for mercy. You do realize it's over, Sydney?"

"Oh, it's been over for a few minutes now."

Nadia looked at her in confusion, unsure of what that comment was supposed to mean. "You puzzle me, Syd. I don't know what to--"

Her voice cut off as her throat constricted slowly. She dropped the gun and brought both her hands up to her neck in an unconscious gesture to try to fix the situation.

Sydney summed up all the strength she had to smirk. "You think that I wasn't ready for you, Nadia? I'm not stupid. I might not believe that Rambaldi was right. I might not have believed that you would actually be stupid enough to show up here expecting to take me down. Hell! I might not have believed that you were actually capable of it. But I wasn't just going to sit there and let you walk all over me."

"What did you do?" Nadia managed to choke out.

"I figured that you would be sloppy. I mean, killing your own sister isn't something that's easy." Sydney pulled a jar out of her pocket. "It's cyanide. My father gave it to me before he left for Belize. He picked it up during his time in the Congo. You know that Africa is just chock full of cassava root. All you have to do is ground a little bit up into a powder and you're all set. My father was concerned that you'd come after me at the time. I have to remember to thank him."

Nadia looked at her sister in fear. She couldn't believe that Sydney didn't seem affected by this act of murder.

As if reading her mind, Sydney smiled. "I know what you're wondering. You're thinking how someone who you thought was inherently good like myself could be capable of doing this to you. Well, I'll tell you." She took a seat next to her sister who was still gasping wildly for air. "Losing Sark has changed me quite a bit, Nadia. I had to die a little inside in order to move on with my life. I think I understand why my mother turned out the way she did now."

Sydney rested her hand for a moment. Taunting Nadia had felt good at the time. She was so mad at her for actually letting Rambaldi control her destiny.

She looked out the window and noticed the sun peeking over the horizon. "Time to finish this thing up..."

****

Sydney looked down at her sister's near-lifeless body. "You know, I think that if you had trusted me, we might have been able to avoid this. If you had just shown me the faith that I showed you. I could have helped you." She pushed the tears that had finally begun to fall out of her eyes. "I'm sorry, Nadia."

She watched in silence as her sister's eyes closed and she stopped struggling. It was done.

Sydney could remember standing up and just staring at the scene in front of her for over half an hour. She couldn't process what she had just done.

Eventually, she pulled it together and called her father. He arranged for a CIA team to come in quietly and remove all traces of Nadia having been to Sydney's house that day. She was able to clean up and decorate her house before anyone arrived.

No one knew until days later what had gone on that day.

Sydney was staring out the window when she heard a small creak in one of the hall floorboards. She looked up at the doorway to her bedroom and saw her daughter standing there, staring. "Good morning, sunshine."

"Morning, Mommy." Lily walked into the room and climbed onto Sydney's lap. "So what are we going to do today?"

"Anything you want, sweetheart. Anything you want."


	7. A Hard Story To Tell

Sydney set Lily down on the floor. "I distinctly remember telling you that we could go to the beach today. Why don't you go get ready?"

Lily smiled at her mother. "You have to promise something."

"What now?" she asked, feigning annoyance.

"I don't want to go to the same beach that Uncle Will took us to."

"No? Then what beach do you want us to go?"

"The one where you married Daddy."

"Lily. That beach is over a two-hour drive." Seeing the disappointed look on her daughter's face, she almost lost it. "I guess it's a good thing that we both got up so early."

Her daughter squealed in delight and ran out of the room. Knowing that it usually took her daughter hours and hours to get ready, Sydney stretched out on her bed, finally letting her eyes shut. They popped back open as the doorbell rang. "Who the hell is here at this early hour?" she grumbled.

Next she heard Lily's feet pad across the hall and down the stairs. "Don't open it if it's a stranger."

"I know, Mommy," Lily yelled up the stairs.

A minute later, she heard Will's voice in her doorway. "That is one excited little girl you have."

"I'm taking her to the beach where I got married," Sydney said without opening her eyes. "What the hell are you doing here, Will?"

"You're the one that called me at four in the morning. I put off coming over here for three hours. I think that was a pretty good feat."

"I'm fine. Go home. Let me sleep." Sydney was happy to hear Will begin to move but groaned when she felt the bed shift under his weight. "My bed is not your home."

"God I wish it was."

Sydney smiled and snuggled in close to her best friend. "Thanks for coming over."

"Not a problem. Did you know that Lily is running her own bath right now?"

"I taught her to be self-sufficient. It comes in handy."

"How'd the story writing go?"

"Good. I almost lost it when I had to write down Nadia's admission that she killed Sark, but then, you know that. That was what made me break down and call you."

"I figured as much." Will yawned. "Which is why I'm here. I thought it might help you to tell me what exactly happened the day that Sark was killed. Thought it might help clear your head and move on."

"I don't want to move on," Sydney said quietly.

"I thought you were over this, Syd. You know it's unhealthy to dwell on it."

She sat up and pointed over to her nightstand. "Do you see what that is? Those are flowers I found on my doorstep the night you brought Lily and I back from the beach. Do you know what kind they are?"

Will sat up and stared at the flowers for a moment. "Those are lotus flowers."

"And do you know what that means?"

"I'm not sure."

"Someone left those as a message to me. But I can't decide what the message is."

"Well, what could it be?"

"It could mean that Nadia's still around somewhere. That I didn't finish what I started three years ago." Sydney put her head in her hands. "But it could also mean that Sark's out there alive somewhere and he's trying to let me know not to give up hope." She paused. "I want that to be true so much."

"I know you do. But he died in front of your eyes, Syd." When she got a strange look on her face, he added, "Didn't he?"

"Not exactly…"

****

Sark and Sydney had decided that a little bit of fresh air would be good for Lily. She had been crying non-stop since they brought her home from the doctor's that afternoon. Plus, every once in a while, they both got slightly claustrophobic of the house and life they built together. People like them had a hard time adjusting to normalcy.

"I never dreamed that I would ever see those brilliant blue eyes on another person," Sydney said as she look down at where her daughter slept in her stroller.

"Genetics is a funny thing," Sark said with a laugh.

"So is the fact that I think you and I have become your Kodak family. I'm sure we look perfect to passersby."

"Sydney, it's eleven o'clock at night. There are no passersby."

"And isn't that how we like it?" She pulled him into a searing kiss. "What say we have a little reenacting of our first date?"

"You want me to take advantage of you against a tree?" She bit her lip and nodded. "I didn't realize you enjoyed it so much the first time around."

"I enjoy it every time around."

Will looked over at her, a knowing grin on his face. "You sound like you were happy."

"I was extremely happy once. I'm still happy in a way. I love Lily. She's my heart and soul."

"But you still miss your husband?"

"Every day, every hour, every minute…"

****

They walked a few miles in the happy, comfortable silence that had become the norm between them. As much as Sydney liked to joke about it, they had almost become the picture perfect family. And probably for the first time in either one of their lives, they were content.

"It's funny how I'm no longer jumpy when we go out at night," Sark said, breaking the hush.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, one would think my spy training would never really fade, that I would always be a little paranoid about any situation I am put in. But I'm not. At least, not anymore."

"Me, too," Sydney said with a smile at her husband. "It took me a while, but I think I've finally left that life behind. And I think the absence of paranoia might be because we're happy. I don't think you or I were happy before we started our life together."

"I agree." Sark leaned down and touched his daughter's nose lightly. "And she is just an added bonus."

Sydney was about to tease Sark about how much he had become a softie these days when her ears picked up an odd noise from the alley they had just passed. "Did you hear that?"

"You can't just leave me hanging like that," Will said, turning to face his best friend when she paused in her story.

"I don't want to do this," Sydney said. "I shouldn't be dredging up these feelings. Everyone keeps telling me to put them behind me. Maybe I should take their advice and do that."

"I think you should keep telling the story."

"You would," she said, narrowing her eyes at him. "You always enjoyed watching me in pain."

"That's a lie."

"But it was fun to say." Sydney paused as her ears picked up on something. "Do you still hear the water running?"

"Yes, your daughter is safe down the hall, taking a bath. You were just at the part where you thought you heard a noise in an alley…"

****

"I thought you said you weren't paranoid anymore," Sark kidded her.

"I'm not trying to be funny. I thought I heard the sound of a gun's safety being released."

"Must be flashbacks from the old days."

Sydney grasped the baby stroller's handles tightly and began to turn it back around in the direction they had come from. "I'm being serious, Julian. This isn't some flashback to the way things were once. I heard something in that alley. I don't think it's safe to be out here anymore. Let's go home."

"Your instincts have never been wrong in the past. I've learned to trust them. All right. If you're that unnerved, we'll go home."

They only made it twenty feet before gun shots and violent shouts erupted from the alley in question. Sydney swore she overheard something about turf lines being crossed and protecting one's position. By instinct alone, Sark pushed his wife and daughter up against the nearest building to keep them out of danger. Keeping them protected was the only thing on his mind. It was the only thing that mattered to him now.

"It seems we've stumbled into the bad part of town," Sark said, his underlying excitement not too well hidden. He may be willing to give up his life to protect them, but he still felt a twinge of fond memories.

"You shouldn't be so happy. It's not just you and I running around town," Sydney scolded as she lifted Lily out of the stroller. She paused and looked at the scene playing out slightly in front of them in confusion for a brief second.

Sark took her words to heart and got serious. First, he pushed her through the unlocked doors of the building they had been leaning up against. Once they were out of earshot of the men shouting outside in the alley, she turned to him, "Something's wrong with the scene out there."

"What was wrong?" Will asked.

"The men were shouting about turf lines being crossed. I knew for a fact that Sark and I hadn't stumbled into a major gang activity area. In fact, we were far from it. That was why we choose the neighborhood to live in that we did. It was as safe as you could get."

"But weren't you out for a walk? You could have walked a little too far away from home without realizing it."

"Not possible. Not Sark and I. Not when it came to the matter of Lily's safety."

"I still don't get how that was so odd. Things can be carried over from the bad part of town to the good parts. I report about it every day for the paper."

"Whatever was happening outside had nothing to do with feuding gangs. I was sure of that. And I also had a nasty feeling that it had everything to do with Lily."

"You were scared about the Rambaldi prophecy."

"I knew it was only a matter of time before the whole prophecy came back to bite me in the ass. My life had been going so well. It was about time something screwed it up. I just didn't realize how bad it was about to get…"

****

"We need to get out of here now," Sark said, once he realized what Sydney was insinuating.

"And how are we supposed to do that? We're stuck in a building that we have never been in before. The men we heard outside know we're in here, and they're probably watching the doors at this very moment. So, we can't go out that way. But we need to get out of this building as soon as possible."

"Impossible situations are our forte," Sark said without much thought. He turned to Sydney. "But you have a feeling that this is where they wanted us to go, don't you?"

"I haven't had one of my instinctual feelings like this since I left the CIA. They're what kept me from dying on numerous missions. In fact, they're probably the only reason I beat you on so many countless occasions. So, I've learned over the years not to doubt them, Julian. And right now, I'm getting a feeling that if we don't get out of this building as soon as possible, something bad is going to happen."

Sark didn't answer. He just grabbed his wife's wrist, being careful not to jostle the young girl in her arms, and pulled her along the hallway while searching for an alternative exit for them to use. "There has to be a back way out."

"I pulled him to a stop after what seemed like miles and miles of hallway. We were going nowhere…"

****

"I think that was our only way out."

"We can't stop here," Sark said, continuing to pull on her. "Give me Lily if you're getting tired."

"I'm not," Sydney said. She couldn't let go of her motherly instinct to protect her daughter. "Who do you think is doing this?"

"It could be anyone we crossed in the past. You and I both know that the list of our enemies is practically endless. We always knew there would come a day when our old life interrupted the new one we built."

"But I don't want that to happen."

"It's not something we can control. Go through there." Sark pointed to a door.

When Sydney opened it, she realized that it was a stairwell. "Where do you think this takes us?"

"Up or down."

"Now is not the time to be sarcastic," she scolded, only half serious.

"I'm always sarcastic."

"After we entered that stairwell, we both didn't speak a word to each other. I think we were both racking our brains to try to figure out what exactly was going on and how we could get out of another impossible situation."

"Did you ever think it might have just been paranoia? That maybe no one was coming after you?"

"I would have chalked it all up to paranoia, except every once in a while Sark or I would hear a noise like someone was following us. We knew that there was something drastically wrong with the situation."

"This whole thing seems like a horribly bad horror movie that you see at three o'clock in the morning."

"I wouldn't believe it if I hadn't lived it. There was someone following us. They didn't want us to escape that building. It was almost as if they were stalling for time."

"They were stalling, weren't that?"

"Yes, they were stalling for their boss to arrive. She had gotten tangled up in a prior appointment with her father…"

****

There was a horrible tug in the bottom of Sydney's stomach as Sark stopped in his tracks. "What's wrong? We have to keep going if we're going to make it."

"It all makes sense," Sark mumbled as he turned to her. "It all makes sense, Syd."

"What makes sense?" she said, holding Lily a little tighter to her breast. Sark was scaring her.

"Everything. Being lured here, the timing, it seeming like whoever is out there is stalling, us not being able to find an exit. It all makes sense."

"Have you ever wondered what our lives would be like if Sark were still in them?" Sydney asked abruptly.

"I can't say that I have," Will said honestly.

"I think about it every day. Would I have had the strength to kill my sister if she hadn't taken something so dear to me away? If she hadn't admitted to killing Sark that day, would I have been able to make myself so cold-hearted that I could murder my own flesh and blood?"

"Sydney. Thoughts like that are going to drive you to insanity."

She laughed. "I know. I don't let myself dwell on them too much."

"That's good to hear." Will sighed and leaned back onto the bed. "So, what do you think would have happened if Nadia hadn't killed him that day?"

"I think things would have been considerably different. For starters, I think Nadia's suspicions that Sark was the meaning of my whole life would have been right."

"That's impossible. Rambaldi predicted that your first born would play that role in the prophecy."

"No, he never really pinned down who the person or thing would be. I think that the only reason that it was Lily was because Sark was dead. With him out of my life, she was the only thing I had. If Nadia hadn't been impatient, if she had managed to wait until Lily was four years old, then killing Sark would have kept me from killing her. It would have made the idea of a fight to the death between me and her obsolete."

"There's one thing wrong with that theory. The confrontation between you and Nadia happened on Lily's fourth birthday. If she wasn't your life's meaning, it wouldn't have happened that day."

"Exactly. It wasn't supposed to happen that day. It was supposed to happen a lot sooner. The fourth anniversary of my marriage to Julian, to be precise." Sydney smiled weakly. "I've had a lot of time to think this out, Will. I know I'm right. Nadia and I were supposed to have a fight to death, and I think it was going to be over Sark."

"You and your sister were going to kill one another over Julian Sark? That doesn't seem likely."

"She was going to fall in love with him," Sydney said simply.

"What?" Will screamed.

She shushed him. "The water might still be running, but need I remind you I have an impressionable daughter within hearing distance."

"Sorry," he apologized, looking sheepish.

"No. It's quite all right. It's a natural reaction."

"But how are you so sure that Nadia was supposed to fall in love with Sark?"

"It's the only thing that would make sense. Nadia and I never had a perfect sisterly relationship, but it wasn't so horrible that we hated each other. We missed the crucial years when a strong bond could have been formed. I was still trying to figure out who she was as a person when I was forced to kill her. I think that the only thing that could have driven us to such an extreme point is a man."

"And that man was Sark?"

"Nadia would have kept a constant watch on my life. She would have desperately wanted to know what the answer to the Rambaldi riddle was. Eventually, I believe she would have developed a fascination with my husband that would bridge into what she thought was love."

"She was going to try to take him away by force. And that was the reason you killed her."

"I'm fiercely protective of the things that are good in my life. I won't let anyone take that away from me."

"And rightfully so, Syd. Every person has an innate right to protect the things they cherish."

"That was the last right that Sark exerted," Sydney said, the sadness apparent in her voice. "He was trying to protect me. He was trying to warn me…"

****

"It was her all along. She's been playing both of us for fools," Sark mumbled. He looked Sydney in the eyes. "But we know now."

"I don't know what you're trying to tell me," Sydney said frustrated. "I don't know."

There was a small whiz by her ear. She noticed Sark stiffen slightly, and she saw pain flash across his face. Looking down, she caught sight of a small red patch that was spreading slightly across the white of Sark's shirt. "What is that?" she asked hesitantly.

He looked at her in confusion and sorrow. Without a word, he crumpled to the ground.

"No. No. No. No. No." She just kept repeating the same word over and over as she sat down on the ground, looking at her husband as the energy slowly drained from his body. "Get up, you stupid bastard. We have to keep moving if we're going to get out of here."

"I don't know how he did," Sydney said. She looked over at Will, and he saw the tears gleaming in her eyes. "Somehow he gathered up the will to stand."

"I think you gave him a few good things worth trying for."

She smiled. "Thank you."

"What happened next?"

"We didn't get very far…"

****

Sark braced himself against the side of the wall. "The exit we came in through has to be unguarded by now. She sent those men here to kill me, and they've done their job."

"You're not dead."

"Not yet," he said, wincing in pain. "But I'm slowing you down, Sydney."

"What do you expect me to do? Just leave you behind and make a run for it?"

"Things would be a lot easier if I knew you would do just that."

"And things would also have been a lot easier if I wasn't born a Bristow and a Derevko. We can't all get what we want. I'm not leaving you."

She saw him grimace in pain as he righted himself again. "Fine. Go through there." He pointed through a nearby doorway.

Knowing she had won their small argument, she didn't hesitate to follow him command. She took a few steps through the doorway but turned immediately when she realized that Sark wasn't following her. "Come on. We need to hurry if we're going to get out of here." She started moving a few steps again.

"Sydney," Sark said weakly.

She turned back to face him and was frightened to see the way he appeared. He wasn't going to make it much farther.

With his last bit of energy, he reached up and slammed his hand hard into a panel on the wall. A glass panel slid in front of the doorway, effectively cutting him off from her. Letting out a sigh, he used the wall to slide down off of his feet. He looked intently at Sydney. "I love you. I want you to always know that."

"What have you done?" she asked, placing her hand lightly on the glass barrier. "What have you done?"

"And I will always find you," he whispered as his eyes slid shut.

She stared in horror as she watched his breathing slow to a near standstill. He was dying, and she couldn't get to him. The anger and frustration welled up inside of her finally burst out. "I'm not leaving you behind," she screamed. "I refuse to leave you behind."

"The screaming woke up Lily," Sydney explained. "I guess you can say that was the exact moment when she took over my life's meaning. Her screams snapped me back to reality." She shook her head as Will reached out to wipe away her tears. "I was so stupid. I gave up hope."

"You left."

"I left."

The two best friends sat in silence. There wasn't much else to say.

"I'm ready," Lily said from the doorway.

Sydney said up with a start and tried to wipe the noticeable tears out of her eyes. "Okay, baby. Uncle Will and I were just finishing."

"Is something wrong?" she asked innocently.

"No," Will said, standing up. "Everything's just fine. Your mommy and I were just talking about the old days. We both were getting a little sentimental. Tell you what. You run downstairs and whip up some of your famous bowls of cereal, and we can all have breakfast together before you leave for the beach."

"The beach where Mommy and Daddy got married," Lily corrected.

"Right." Contented, Lily left Will and her mother alone again.

"So why'd you get rid of the squirt?" Sydney asked as she started to fix her hair in the mirror.

"Because you still have one thing to tell me. What do you think those flowers mean?"

"I have no idea."

"But you hope…" he prodded.

"I hope that Sark was telling me the truth when he said he would always find me."

"But you thought he was dead for almost seven years, Syd. How can he maybe be alive all of the sudden? You saw him die."

"And they recovered his body from the rubble of the building after it had been burnt down. I should have known if my sister was behind it all, the thoroughness wasn't that out of the ordinary." Sydney sighed. "But they also recovered my body from the fire in the apartment I shared with Francie. I wasn't dead."

Will nodded and stood up. "That's a good enough answer for now. We better get downstairs before your little demon spawn gets Corn Pops and milk all over the counter."

They went downstairs, and Sydney was happened to see her daughter had not gotten into any sort of trouble. Breakfast went by without a hitch with her trying her best not to think about the two hardest days of her life that had both been dredged up in the past twelve hours. Will let himself out as Sydney was loading her daughter into her SUV.

"Why don't you nap, sweetheart, while I drive down? We don't want you crashing in the middle of the beach. I don't think I have enough energy to drag you home."

Lily laughed. "Whatever you say, Mommy."

Sydney winked at her daughter and pulled out of the driveway.

She had a lot to think about during the two-hour drive to the beach she had visited since the day Sark had died. It was just too painful to see it and remember how great her life could have been. But because her daughter wanted to, she was going to have to face her fears. It was time.

In the back of her mind, she ran through the possibility that her husband hadn't died that day seven years ago. It was quite possible that someone had set up his death, but she couldn't figure out why.

"Maybe I was wrong about the Rambaldi timetable," she said, working a few things out by saying them out loud. "Maybe Nadia was already in love with my husband by the time Lily was born. Maybe she stole him like the Covenant stole me. He might be out there somewhere, brainwashed. But I can't be running around the world searching for him. I have our daughter to think about." She growled in frustration. "And he might not even be out there."

Sighing, she tried to clear her mind and think of less troubling things, at least for the next few hours. "We're here," she said loudly, waking up Lily.

Lily yawned and smiled at her mother. "Yay!" she said with a childlike glee.

Sydney got out of the car and opened the rear passenger door to let her daughter out. "So, what prompted you to want to come all the way out here, kid? I'm dying to know."

"It was something Ray Lopez said to me on the playground a few days ago."

She smiled. Ray was the grocery clerk who ran a small cart/shop on the edge of the neighborhood park. He did Sydney a favor a few times a week by watching Lily while she played to give Sydney a break. "What did Ray say?"

"He said he was talking to a man who was buying fruit the other day. Ray said the man kept looking at me and when he asked what was the matter, the man said I reminded him of his daughter. He hadn't seen her in seven years."

"And this prompted you to ask me to take you here? I don't understand."

"I wasn't done 'splaining yet," Lily scolded. "The man was telling Ray about all the romantic things he did with his wife when they were together. Ray was saying how inonnic-"

"Ironic," Sydney corrected.

"-ironic it was that the man had also gotten married on the same beach you and Daddy did. That got me thinking that I had never seen it for myself."

Sydney grabbed Lily's hand as they started walking across the sand and stone. "Sometimes you talk like a grown-up. It worries me."

Lily smiled up at her mother. "I love you, Mommy."

"I love you, too, sweetie."

"And I love Daddy, too."

"I think he knows that wherever he is."

Sydney began to lay out the blankets she had packed in with their stuff. She had only gotten one large one down on the sand before a voice interrupted her.

"Excuse me, miss?"

She straightened up to see a young teenager looking at her expectantly. "Yes?"

"I'm supposed to give you these." He held out a bouquet of lotus flowers.

"Who the hell are you?" Sydney spit out as she hesitantly took the flowers out of his hand.

"Don't get mad at me, lady. That man over there paid me twenty bucks to come over, hand those to you, and point him out."

She looked over at where the young man was pointing. The flowers fell slowly to the ground.

"Who's the man, Mommy?" Lily said, taking Sydney's hand.

Sydney took a deep breath and blinked back her tears. "That's your daddy. He's finally come home, Lily."

THE END


	8. A Necessary Story for the Future

Epilogue

Sydney shut the door to Lily's bedroom softly. It had taken her close to a half of an hour to calm her daughter down and get her to go to bed. The only way she had succeeded was when Sark agreed to read his daughter a bedtime story after promising her he would be there in the morning when she woke up.

She turned to the man in question, who was leaning against the hallway wall. "So what do we do now?"

"I don't know," he said, rubbing his temples. "I didn't think this one through."

"That's for damn sure. You just show up out of the blue. I thought you were dead," she hissed quietly, her anger extremely evident. "How could you let me think you were dead for seven years?"

"There were extenuating circumstances."

"Oh really?" Sydney rolled her eyes and walked past him and down the hall. He had been back in her life for a handful of hours, and he was already infuriating her. It seemed like, at the heart of their relationship, nothing had changed.

Without a word, he followed her into the room they had once shared together. He watched as she sat down on the bed and stared at him. "This is going to be a difficult few minutes," he thought, reminding himself that the situation was very delicate. Sydney had been delivered an awful shock, seeing him on the beach.

"Where were you?" she started.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," he said with a smirk.

"It doesn't matter if I'll believe you because you're going to tell me no matter what. I have a very confused daughter to contend with because of you. The least you could do is explain where you've been so I can decide if I want you back in my daughter's life."

"Our daughter," Sark corrected. "She's our daughter, and you can't honestly want to keep me out of her life."  
  
Sydney sighed. "No, I wouldn't do that. You're right. But I need to know where you've been."

"Well, I spent a year in a drug induced coma, one year relearning how to walk, three years locked up in a facility in Buenos Aires, sixteen months trying to finish up the whole Rambaldi mess, and eight long months trying to remember who the hell I was." He paused. "Not necessarily in that order."

"You went through all that," she said, staring at him in a sort of sympathetic horror.

"I went through all that alone in the seven years I was away from you and Lily. And you know what kept me going?"

She shook her head, not even wanting to guess the answer to that question.

"Knowing that no matter what changed, when it was finally time to come home, you'd be here."

"You never once thought I would have moved out of this house? There are so many memories in these walls."

"I know it must have been painful for you, but I never doubted for a moment that you would leave. This house was probably your last connection to me. You wouldn't leave it." He sat down on the bed next to her and grasped her hand. It was a relief when she didn't jump away or punch him.

"I didn't," she said, staring at the now wilting vase of lotus flowers. She looked over at the man she had once loved with all her heart. "You have a lot of explaining to do still."

"And I will do it." He traced the line of her jaw lightly with his fingers and was pleased to see her close her eyes and breathe in sharply. "In time."

"We both need time, don't we?" she said, opening her eyes.

Realizing what she must be implying, he stood up. "I'll give you as much time as you want, Sydney." He walked to the bedroom doorway before turning around to look at her. "I'm sorry it took me seven years to get here."

She smiled and stood up from the bed. "Where do you think you're going, mister?"

"I have a nice motel room I'm currently paying thirty-nine ninety-five for on the other side of town."

"Don't be stupid," she said, glaring at him. "I might be a little mad at you right now, but this is your home."

"Is it?" he said, hopeful of her answer.

"It never stopped," she said with a smile. She held her arms out. "Now, come here, Julian. I've missed you."

He laughed and pulled her into his arms. She giggled when she felt him sniff her hair. "I missed the smell of you," he explained.

"Did you really think I was going to kick you out of your own house, you idiot?" she asked after a moment.

"I told myself to expect the worse."

"Which was?"

"You happily married to another man who had adopted my daughter and was raising her as his own."

Sydney looked shocked. "That was the worst you could imagine?"

"That is the one and only thing that would ever make me want to die. If I can't have you and Lily, my life doesn't really mean a thing."

"Let's go to bed," she suggested. She pointed over at the dresser. "If you look in the third drawer from the top, I think you'll find something very familiar to sleep in."

He slid open the drawer. "You kept some of my clothes."

"I kept all of your clothes," she corrected. "Most of them are in boxes in the basement. Those are the ones I couldn't bear to pack up."

Sark sniffed a t-shirt lightly. "They smell like you."

"That's because I've been wearing them for seven years," she said with a laugh, sitting down on the bed again. "Now change. I'm tired."

He smirked at her and began to loosen his belt. When she averted her eyes, he almost burst out laughing. "I don't think there's anything here you haven't seen."

She laughed but didn't turn to look at him. "I feel like we're starting over again."

"I know the feeling. It's been a long time." He paused to think. "But I don't think I've ever forgotten the way your body feels against mine."

He was pleased to see her face flush slightly. There was ground he had to make up, but he had a feeling that they were making progress. "You can turn around now. I'm done."

She turned back to face him and smiled. "It's nice to see you in those clothes again."

"It's nice to be in these clothes again." He sat down on the bed next to where she was laying. "Do you want me to sleep on the couch?"

"You're being stupid again," she scolded. She reached out for his hand and pulled him down so that he was lying next to her with his arm placed comfortably around her waist.

For a few minutes they just lay in silence, neither one knowing the proper thing to say. Sark noticed Sydney shift her head so that it was buried mostly in the pillow. "What are you doing?"

"Nothing," she mumbled through the pillow.

"Look at me, Sydney," he ordered.

"No," she said, still not moving.

He reached out and gently turned her head so that she was looking him in the eye. "Are you crying?"

"No."

"Yes, you are."

"No, I'm not," she insisted defiantly. He wiped a tear away with his finger and held it out for her to see. "Maybe I am."

"Why?"

"Because I'm happy, you moron. This is something I never thought I'd experience again. It's something I've dreamed about for two thousand, six hundred and twenty two days."

"Two thousand, six hundred and twenty three," he corrected. "You forgot to count today."

Before she could say anything back, there was a small knock on the door. "Come in, munchkin," Sydney called.

Lily bounded into the room and up onto the bed. "I couldn't sleep."

"And why is that?" Sydney asked.

"I was afraid that Daddy wouldn't be here if I fell asleep."

"He's still here," Sydney said, pointing to the man next to her. "See?"

Lily wormed her way in between her two parents. "Can I sleep with you guys tonight?"

"What do you think, Daddy?" Sydney said, trying to hold in her laughter.

He pulled Lily into his arms. "I think I missed my two girls desperately."


End file.
